Abstract
Hierarchically structured porous TiO2-B spheres have been synthesized via a hydrothermal process using amorphous titania/oleylamine composites as a self-sacrificing template. The TiO2-B spheres are constructed by interconnected nanotubes and possess a high specific surface area of 295 m2 g-1. When evaluated as an anode material in lithium-half cells, the as-obtained TiO2-B material exhibits high and reversible lithium storage capacity of 270 mA h g-1 at 1 C (340 mA g-1), excellent rate capability of 221 mA h g-1 at 10 C, and long cycle life with over 70% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 10 C. The superior electrochemical performance of TiO2-B material strongly correlates to the synergetic superiorities with a combination of TiO2-B polymorph, hierarchically porous structure, interconnected nanotubes and spherical morphology. Post-mortem structural analyses reveal some discrete cubic LiTiO2 nanodots formed on the outer surfaces of TiO2-B nanotubes, which might account for the slight capacity loss upon prolonged electrochemical cycling.
Highlights
Structured porous TiO2-B spheres have been synthesized via a hydrothermal process using amorphous titania/oleylamine composites as a self-sacrificing template
Amorphous TO-OA composite spherical particles were synthesized by a modified sol-gel route[27] and used as a self-sacrificing template (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Fig. S1a)
X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern (Supplementary Fig. S2) indicates that the Na-titanates sample obtained after reaction for 48 h has an orthorhombic Na2Ti2O5·H2O phase
Summary
Structured porous TiO2-B spheres have been synthesized via a hydrothermal process using amorphous titania/oleylamine composites as a self-sacrificing template. The superior electrochemical performance of TiO2-B material strongly correlates to the synergetic superiorities with a combination of TiO2-B polymorph, hierarchically porous structure, interconnected nanotubes and spherical morphology. A major challenge for rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is to develop new materials with high energy density, long cycle life, and excellent rate capability for practical applications in high-power electric vehicles and portable electronic devices[1]. Low-dimensional TiO2-B nanostructures, such as nanoparticles[10,11], nanowires[12], nanoribbons[13,14] and nanosheets[15] have been intensively studied as anode materials in LIBs. In particular, TiO2-B nanotubes[16,17], with hollow structure and high surface area, are favorable for electrochemical lithium storage under high rates. For spherical morphology with porous structure, it exhibits superior rate performance
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