Issue 36, 2018

An ultralight and flexible sodium titanate nanowire aerogel with superior sodium storage

Abstract

An ultralight, conductive, and flexible 3D assembly of a metal oxide nanowire aerogel as an electrode for energy storage devices without additives and typically inconvenient flexible supported-substrates remains a challenge. Herein, we report a new 3D highly ordered layer-by-layer stacking sodium titanate@reduced graphene oxide core–shell (NTO@GCS) nanowire aerogel that has an ultra-high aspect ratio with a diameter of 30–50 nm and typical length up to 100 μm for a new class of convenient sodium-ion battery (SIB) anodes. The formation mechanism of the unique 3D NTO nanowire aerogel, the precursor of the NTO@GCS aerogel, was carefully proposed, demonstrating that the key challenge for this synthesis strategy was to form a stable and homogeneous ultrafine NTO nanotube gel suspension. In addition, for high performance sodium-ion storage, reduced graphene oxides (rGOs) were introduced into the NTO aerogel backbone. The critical role of the graphene structure between the NTO nanowires and rGO sheets in Na+ storage was systematically investigated. Compared to the 3D pristine NTO aerogel and 3D NTO nanowires on graphene sheet paper, the 3D interconnected NTO–GCS aerogel electrode facilitated rapid ion/electrolyte transportation, resulting in remarkably enhanced Na+ storage with a reversible capacity of 240 mA h g−1 at 0.2C and durable cycling stability after 4900 cycles at a rate of 2 and 4C with nearly 100% coulombic efficiency.

Graphical abstract: An ultralight and flexible sodium titanate nanowire aerogel with superior sodium storage

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Jul 2018
Accepted
16 Aug 2018
First published
17 Aug 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 17495-17502

An ultralight and flexible sodium titanate nanowire aerogel with superior sodium storage

N. Q. Tran, T. A. Le and H. Lee, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 17495 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA06988C

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