Superior performance of ordered macroporous TiNb2O7 anodes for lithium ion batteries: Understanding from the structural and pseudocapacitive insights on achieving high rate capability

• Published in: Nano energy Vol. 34; pp. 15 - 25
• Main Authors: Lou, Shuaifeng, Cheng, Xinqun, Zhao, Yang, Lushington, Andrew, Gao, Jinlong, Li, Qin, Zuo, Pengjian, Wang, Biqiong, Gao, Yunzhi, Ma, Yulin, Du, Chunyu, Yin, Geping, Sun, Xueliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2017
• Subjects: Hierarchical nanostructure; Lithium ion batteries; Pseudocapacitive behavior; Rate capability; Single-crystalline nanoparticles; Lithium ion batteries; Hierarchical nanostructure; Single-crystalline nanoparticles; Pseudocapacitive behavior; Rate capability
• ISSN: 2211-2855
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.01.058

Titanium niobium oxide (TiNb2O7) has been regarded as a promising anode material for high-rate lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its potential to operate at high rates with improved safety and high theoretical capacity of 387mAhg−1. Herein, three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) TiNb2O7 composed of interconnected single-crystalline nanoparticles was prepared using polystyrene (PS) colloidal crystals as a hard template. The final product yields a homogeneous, continuous, and effective honeycomb-like construction. This architecture provides facile Li+ insertion/extraction and fast electron transfer pathway, enabling high-performance lithium ion pseudocapacitive behavior, leading to good electrochemical performance. As a result, the 3DOM-TiNb2O7 shows a remarkable rate capability (120mAhg−1 at 50C) and durable long-term cyclability (82% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 10C). The work presented herein holds great promise for future design of material structure, and demonstrates the great potential of TiNb2O7 as a practical high-rate anode material for LIBs. The three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) TiNb2O7 composed of interconnected single-crystalline nanoparticles was prepared using polystyrene colloidal crystals as hard template. This architecture provides facile Li+ insertion/extraction and fast electron transfer pathway, and then enables high-effective lithium ion intercalation pseudocapacitive behavior. [Display omitted] •3DOM-TiNb2O7 hierarchical nanostructure has been successfully prepared.•Our results demonstrate that 3DOM-TiNb2O7 anode exhibits good high-rate performances and long cycle life due to the unique pseudocapacitive effects.•Pseudocapacitive contribution of 3DOM-TiNb2O7 anode in the total current response was first quantitative calculated.