Templated synthesis of 2D TiO2 nanoflakes for durable lithium ion batteries

Abstract

In this work, 2D TiO₂ nanoflakes were prepared by employing MXene as a sacrificial template as the anode for durable lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Essentially, the highly crystalline anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles compacted together to form 2D nanoflakes. This novel structure not only helps to alleviate the volume expansion of TiO₂ in the charging/discharging process, but also promotes the Li⁺ diffusion. Furthermore, as an anode for LIBs, it provides a high initial discharge capacity of 610.3 mA h g⁻¹ with a coulombic efficiency of 53.7% at 100 mA g⁻¹. After 100 cycles, the capacity still remains at 246.6 mA h g⁻¹, which is very significant among all reported data under these certain conditions. Besides, the post morphology characterization demonstrates that the structure of the 2D TiO₂ nanoflakes is very well maintained after 100 cycles at 100 mA g⁻¹, promising high specific capacity upon cycling.