The spinel phase LTO is considered to be one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Firstly, it is the so-called zero-strain material, enabling an extremely long cycle life and excellent capacity retention. Secondly, there is no Solid Electrolyte Interface layer formation on LTO during cycling, leading to enhanced safety, long cycle life and high charge/discharge capability over a wide temperature range. Thirdly, there is no Li dendrite formation during cycling, which largely improves the battery safety. The issues of this material are associated with its low energy density and low electronic conductivity. To tackle these, we have developed a novel type of LTO material with improved electronic conductivity and energy density that is extremely useful in high power applications such as EV/HEV/PHEV, and renewable energy applications such as wind smoothing. If estimated in a full battery, the improvement on energy density is approximately 6%.

A novel system and method for removing heat from batteries, capacitors and other energy storage devices during high rate or multi-cycle operation has been proposed in this work. By modifying the exposed posts and inter-cell connecting bus-bars, heat transfer will be increased thus reducing the operating temperature of the battery. Because valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries generate higher levels of internal heat, and because they have a lower thermal mass and lower heat transfer properties, these modifications are particularly valuable for these types of batteries. This thermal management technology can be used to improve the operating life of large batteries such as VRLA stationary batteries used for UPS and standby power applications. In very high-power energy storage applications such as load-leveling, peak-shaving or spinning reserve, battery life may be increased to as much as two times by reducing the operating temperature ten degrees centigrade using these proposed concepts.