Bioinspired large-scale production of multidimensional high-rate anodes for both liquid & solid-state lithium ion batteries

Abstract

High-power electrode materials hold the key to the development of advanced fast charging/discharging lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Herein we develop a new bioinspired template method for large-scale production of multidimensional titanium niobium oxide (TNO) with an adjustable structure and morphology. Representative hierarchical porous TNO nanostructures (1D tubes, 2D flakes and 3D spheres) are controllably constructed and modulated. Relying on the self-assembly of crosslinked TNO, this approach enables us to obtain uniform multidimensional TNO with high porosity and a large surface-to-volume ratio, and thereby shorten the transport paths of ions/electrons and accelerate the redox reaction kinetics. Moreover, the dimension effect on Li ion storage is thoroughly studied. The unique architecture allows the designed TNO to be used at high-rates more than 20C (charging time of ∼3 min) in both liquid & solid-state LIBs. Through comparison of dimension effects, the 2D-TNO electrode shows the best performance with 171 mA h g⁻¹ at 40C in liquid electrolyte. Excitingly, it also exhibits outstanding high-rate capability (159 mA h g⁻¹, 20C) and stable cycling life in solid-state LIBs. Our results verify that the bioinspired technique is an effective way for large-scale synthesis of high-performance high-rate electrodes for electrochemical energy.