Impact of Si4+ Ions Doping on the Electrochemical Cycling Performance of NiTiO3 as Anodes for Li-Lon Batteries.

Pristine and Si4+ doped NiTiO3 are successfully synthesized by molten salt method and electrochemically characterized for its use as an anode material for Li-ion batteries. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results enumerates that the lattice parameter and the cell volume decreases upon the addition of Si4+ due to its smaller ionic radius. The presence of Si4+ in NiTiO3 structure was also confirmed using FTIR analysis, which showed the stretching vibrations of Si-O at -1008 cm(-1). The SEM images reveal that the NiTiO3 particles are in micrometer range and the size of the particle is found to be decrease after Si4+ addition. The electrical studies infers an enhancement in the conductivity from 4.4 x 10(-7) S x cm(-1) to 1.7 x 10(-6) S x cm(-1) on dopant addition. The initial discharge capacity of NiTiO3 is found to be 1257 mA h g(-1) and there is a capacity fading on consecutive cycles. NiTi0.9Si0.1O3 enhances the cyclic performances and a constant capacity around 400 mA h g(-1) is maintained, a very good reversibility with almost 100% efficiency is observed elucidating the fact that almost all the Li ions intercalated are successfully de-intercalated during the discharge process.