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Free-standing hybrid films comprising of ultra-dispersed titania nanocrystals and hierarchical conductive network for excellent high rate performance of lithium storage

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Abstract

The construction of advanced electrode materials is key to the field of energy storage. Herein, a free-standing anatase titania (TiO2) nanocrystal/carbon nanotube (CNT) film is reported using a simple and scalable sol-gel method, followed by calcination. This unique free-standing film comprises ultra-small TiO2 nanocrystals (∼ 5.9 nm) and super-aligned CNTs, with ultra-dispersed TiO2 nanocrystals on the surfaces of the CNTs. On the one hand, these TiO2 nanocrystals can significantly decrease the diffusion distance of the charges and on the other hand, the cross-linked CNTs can act as a three-dimensional (3D) conductive network, allowing the fast transport of electrons. In addition, the film is free-standing, without requiring electrode fabrication and additional conductive agents and binders. Owing to these above synergistic effects, the film is directly used as an anode in Li-ion batteries, and delivers a high discharge capacity of ∼ 105 mAh·g−1 at high rate of 60 C (1 C = 170 mA·g−1) and excellent cycling performance over 2,500 cycles at 30 C. These results indicate that the free-standing anatase TiO2 nanocrystal/CNT film affords a superior performance among the various TiO2 materials and can be a promising anode material for fast-charging Li-ion batteries. Moreover, the TiO2/CNT film exhibits an areal capacity of up to 2.4 mAh·cm−2, confirming the possibility of its practical use.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0208401), Basic Science Center Project of NSFC under grant No. 51788104, Scientific Research Foundation of Qufu Normal University (No. 613701), and Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education (No. 2020AML04). We thank Dr. Bolun Wang for his kind help in revising the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Jingxuan West Road NO. 57, Qufu, 273165, China

    Kunlei Zhu, Yushuang Jiao & Jiawen Zhu

  2. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, and Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Kunlei Zhu, Chenyu Li & Kai Liu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaocheng University, Hunan Road No. 1, Liaocheng, 252000, China

    Hongtao Ren

  4. Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yufeng Luo & Shoushan Fan

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  1. Kunlei Zhu
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  2. Chenyu Li
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  3. Yushuang Jiao
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Correspondence to Kunlei Zhu or Kai Liu.

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12274_2020_3225_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Free-standing hybrid films comprising of ultra-dispersed titania nanocrystals and hierarchical conductive network for excellent high rate performance of lithium storage

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Zhu, K., Li, C., Jiao, Y. et al. Free-standing hybrid films comprising of ultra-dispersed titania nanocrystals and hierarchical conductive network for excellent high rate performance of lithium storage. Nano Res. 14, 2301–2308 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3225-7

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