Advanced pseudocapacitive lithium titanate towards next-generation energy storage devices

The progression of anodes has markedly promoted the advancement of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Typical LIBs using carbon anodes cannot meet the continuously increasing demands for qualified safety and longevity. Spinel lithium titanate (LTO) is a strong contender to replace graphite anodes due to its optimal zero-strain merit and outstanding structural stability. Nevertheless, low reversible capacity and poor rate performance hinder the widespread application of LTO. Amazingly, the promising pseudocapacitive effect enables LTO to surmount the limit of theoretical capacity via boosted surface Li storage, contributing to observably upgraded energy and power densities in a wide temperature range. By leveraging the synergistic effect of multiple modification strategies to create additional active sites, the pseudocapacitive response of LTO can be markedly enhanced. This paper reviews the progress of pseudocapacitive LTO for the first time. We highlight the zero-strain characteristic and pseudocapacitance mechanism of LTO and review the design strategies of pseudocapacitive LTO. Significative issues for further developing pseudocapacitive LTO are proposed. It is worth noting that the pseudocapacitive contribution can greatly improve the low-temperature electrochemical performances of LTO. We anticipate that more efforts will be aroused to study the advanced pseudocapacitive LTO to accelerate the development of next-generation LIBs and energy storage devices.