Titanium niobate (Ti2Nb10O29) anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon foams as flexible and self-supported anode for high-performance lithium ion batteries

Assembling active materials on flexible conductive matrixes for fabricating high-rate, self-supported and durable anodes is essential for the development of high-power flexible lithium-ion batteries. In this study, we report an efficient combinational strategy for producing hybrid composites (TNO@MCF) of Ti2Nb10O29 (TNO) anchored on melamine carbon foam (MCF) via a hydrothermal method. The N-doped MCF not only showed good electronic conductivity and flexibility, but also improved the ion transport performance of the composites. The TNO@MCF electrode exhibited remarkably high rate capacities (327 mA h g(-1)at 1 C, and 205 mA h g(-1) at 40 C) and excellent cycling stability with a high capacity retention of 81.4% after 1000 cycles at 10 C. After 100 compression-rebound cycles, the TNO@MCF electrode showed a reversible capacity of 315 mA h g(-1) at 1 C and exhibited a capacity retention of 72.3% for 1000 cycles at 10 C. This compressible structure design could provide guidelines for manufacture of other flexible electrodes for energy storage devices. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study introduces an efficient combinational strategy for producing hybrid composites of Ti2Nb10O29 anchored on melamine carbon foam, which exhibited remarkably high rate capacities and excellent cycling stability. The N-doped MCF not only showed good electronic conductivity and flexibility, but also improved the ion transport performance of the composites. The compressible structure design could provide guidelines for the manufacture of other flexible electrodes for energy storage devices.