Nitrogen-Doped Carbon-Coated TiO<sub>2</sub>/TiF<sub>3</sub> Heterostructure Nanoboxes with Enhanced Lithium and Sodium Storage Performance
Hui Xu, Weijuan Wang, Genxi Yu, Liguang Qin, Yaqin Jiang, Luohan Ren, Jian Chen
Abstract
TiO2 is the most promising anode material for lithium-/sodium-ion batteries (LIBs/SIBs) for grid-scale energy storage. However, the use of TiO2 anodes is greatly restricted by the low theoretical capacity, inferior electrical conductivity, and slow ion diffusion. In this study, nitrogen-doped carbon-coated TiO2/TiF3 heterostructure nanoboxes with a hierarchically porous yolk–shell structure were successfully fabricated and demonstrated impressive electrochemical performance when employed as anodes for LIBs and SIBs. Specifically, this anode delivers a high lithium storage capacity of 245 mA h g–1 at 100 mA g–1 after 100 cycles and excellent rate capability up to 5000 mA g–1 with a capacity of 71 mA h g–1. In addition, it also delivers a considerable sodium storage capacity of 112 mA h g–1 at 50 mA g–1 after 100 cycles. The enhanced lithium and sodium storage performance is attributed to the TiO2/TiF3 heterostructure that improves both specific capacity and charge transfer, conductive carbon frameworks, and hierarchically porous yolk–shell structure with open diffusion channels.