Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ is well known to be a safe and efficient anode material for Li-ion batteries. A metal-organic chemical vapor deposition process has been developed for the synthesis of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ thin film anodes on planar and 3D substrates. The influences of various deposition parameters, including precursor flow rates and post-annealing temperatures, have been investigated by material and electrochemical analyses. Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ thin films deposited at the optimized process parameters showed a high crystallinity and high electrochemical activity. A reversible storage capacity of 151 mAh/g was achieved at a current of 0.5 C, corresponding to 86.3% of the theoretical specific capacity of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂. Up to almost 600 cycles, the electrodes showed no significant capacity loss. Furthermore, the deposited thin film anodes also showed excellent rate performance. Compared to the storage capacity at 0.5 C, 93% of the capacity was maintained at 10 C. Thin films were also deposited on highly structured substrates to investigate the uniformity and electrochemical performance. With the same footprint area, the 3D Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ film anode showed a 2.5 times higher storage capacity than planar electrode.

In this work, the selective electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide on oxide-derived silver electrocatalysts is presented. By a simple synthesis technique, the overall high faradaic efficiency for CO production on the oxide-derived Ag was shifted by more than 400 mV towards a lower overpotential compared to that of untreated Ag. Notably, the Ag resulting from Ag oxide is capable of electrochemically reducing CO₂to CO with approximately 80 % catalytic selectivity at a moderate overpotential of 0.49 V, which is much higher than that (ca. 4 %) of untreated Ag under identical conditions. Electrokinetic studies show that the improved catalytic activity is ascribed to the enhanced stabilization of COOH^.intermediate. Furthermore, highly nanostructured Ag is likely able to create a high local pH near the catalyst surface, which may also facilitate the catalytic activity for the reduction of CO₂with suppressed H₂evolution.