Pseudo-capacitive and kinetic enhancement of metal oxides and pillared graphite composite for stabilizing battery anodes

Abstract

Abstract Nanostructured TiO2 and SnO2 possess reciprocal energy storage properties, but challenges remain in fully exploiting their complementary merits. Here, this study reports a strategy of chemically suturing metal oxides in a cushioning graphite network (SnO2[O]rTiO2-PGN) in order to construct an advanced and reliable energy storage material with a unique configuration for energy storage processes. The suggested SnO2[O]rTiO2-PGN configuration provides sturdy interconnections between phases and chemically wraps the SnO2 nanoparticles around disordered TiO2 (SnO2[O]rTiO2) into a cushioning plier-linked graphite network (PGN) system with nanometer interlayer distance (~ 1.2 nm). Subsequently, the SnO2[O]rTiO2-PGN reveals superior lithium-ion storage performance compared to all 16 of the control group samples and commercial graphite anode (keeps around 600 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 after 250 cycles). This work clarifies the enhanced pseudo-capacitive contribution and the major diffusion-controlled energy storage kinetics. The validity of preventing volume expansion is demonstrated through the visualized image evidence of electrode integrity.