Carbon modified hierarchical hollow tubes composed of TiO2 nanoparticles for high performance lithium-ion batteries

Abstract Titanium dioxide (TiO2) as one of the anode materials has been studied intensively by virtue of its high safety, cheap price, environmental benignancy and high lithium insertion potential. However, the sluggish Li+ diffusivity and limited conductivity inevitably block the various applications of TiO2 in LIBs. Hence, in this work, TiO2 hierarchical hollow tubes modified with disordered carbon (HT-TiO2/C) were synthesized. The TiO2 nanoparticles of HT-TiO2/C are capable to shorten the length of Li+ diffusivity. The micro-nano structure takes both advantages of nanoscale materials (the short length of Li+ diffusivity) and micro-materials (the great structural stability). In addition, the carbon modifying layer improves the conductivity. Benefiting from the unique structural features, HT-TiO2/C shows excellent rate performance (105.5 mA h g−1 at current rate of 20 C) and distinguished long-cycle performance (88.4 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles at 20 C with a capacity retention of 88.1%).