A lithium-titanate battery is a modified lithium-ion battery that uses lithium-titanate nanocrystals, instead of carbon, on the surface of its anode. This gives the anode a surface area of about 100 square meters per gram, compared with 3 square meters per gram for carbon, allowing electrons to enter and leave the anode quickly.
Lithium titanate batteries offer many advantages over other lithium-ion chemistries, including: Longer cycle life. Increased safety. Wider working temperature range. Faster charge/discharge rates. However, energy density is relatively low among these batteries. In addition, high C-rates inevitably impact the battery’s capacity over time.
Lithium titanate batteries are considered the safest among lithium batteries. Due to its high safety level, LTO technology is a promising anode material for large-scale systems, such as electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
One of the primary limitations of lithium titanate (LTO) batteries is their cost. They are more expensive than other lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium iron phosphate. Another limitation is their capacity.
A disadvantage of lithium-titanate batteries is their lower inherent voltage (2.4 V), which leads to a lower specific energy (about 30–110 Wh/kg ) than conventional lithium-ion battery technologies, which have an inherent voltage of 3.7 V. Some lithium-titanate batteries, however, have an volumetric energy density of up to 177 Wh/L.
Typically, a battery reaches its end of life when its capacity falls to 80% of its initial capacity. That said, lithium titanate batteries’ capacity loss rate is lower than for other lithium batteries. Therefore, it has a longer lifespan, ranging from 15 to 20 years.
The Log9 company is working to introduce its tropicalized-ion battery (TiB) backed by lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) and lithium-titanium-oxide (LTO) battery chemistries. Unlike LFP and LTO, the more popular NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) chemistry does have the requisite temperature resilience to survive in the warmest conditions such as in India. LTO is not only temperature resilient, but also has a long life.