One-Pot Fabrication of Hierarchical Nanosheet-Based TiO2 -Carbon Hollow Microspheres for Anode Materials of High-Rate Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Hierarchical and hollow nanostructures have recently attracted considerable attention because of their fantastic architectures and tunable property for facile lithium ion insertion and good cycling stability. In this study, a one-pot and unusual carving protocol is demonstrated for engineering hollow structures with a porous shell. Hierarchical TiO2 hollow spheres with nanosheet-assembled shells (TiO2 NHS) were synthesized by the sequestration between the titanium source and 2,2'-bipyridine-5,5'-dicarboxylic acid, and kinetically controlled etching in trifluoroacetic acid medium. In addition, annealing such porous nanostructures presents the advantage of imparting carbon-doped functional performance to its counterpart under different atmospheres. Such highly porous structures endow very large specifics surface area of 404 m(2)  g(-1) and 336 m(2)  g(-1) for the as-prepared and calcination under nitrogen gas. C/TiO2 NHS has high capacity of 204 mA h g(-1) at 1 C and a reversible capacity of 105 mA h g(-1) at a high rate of 20 C, and exhibits good cycling stability and superior rate capability as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries.