Ultralong-life and high-rate web-like Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ anode for high-performance flexible lithium-ion batteries

Flexible lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have recently attracted increasing attention as they show unique promising advantages, such as flexibility, shape diversity, and light weight. Similar to conventional LIBs, flexible LIBs with long cycle life and high-rate performance are very important for applications of high performance flexible electronics. Herein, we report a three-dimensional (3D) web-like binderfree Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) anode assembled from numerous 1D nanowires exhibiting excellent cycling performance with high capacities of 153 and 115 mA·h·g^-1 after 5,000 cycles at 2 C and 20 C, respectively, and excellent rate property with a capacity of 103 mA·h·g^-1 even at a very high current rate of 80 C. Surprisingly, a flexible full battery assembled from the web-like LTO nanostructure and LiMn₂O₄ (LMO) nanorods exhibited a high capacity of 125 mA·h·g^-1 at high current rate of 20 C, and showed excellent flexibility with little performance degradation even in seriously bent states. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]