Reduced graphene oxide bridged, TiO2 modified and Mn3O4 intercalated Ti3C2Tx sandwich-like nanocomposite as a high performance anode for enhanced lithium storage applications

Abstract Ti3C2Tx, a novel two-dimensional metal carbide, is regarded as a promising candidate for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its unique layered structure, good conductivity and low barrier for Li+ diffusion. However, Ti3C2Tx has low capacity and poor rate capability due to the severe interlayer stacking and functionalization group of hydroxyl, oxygen or fluorine existing in Ti3C2Tx particles, limiting its widespread applications. Herein, we have firstly offered a relatively simple and rapid synthetic method to fabricate a 3D quaternary rGO/TiO2/Mn3O4/Ti3C2Tx nanocomposite as LIBs anode material. Ti3C2Tx acts as a conductive framework to enhance the electronic transport properties. Besides, this unique layered structure contributes partially to the enhancement of the total theoretical capacity of the active material. Mn3O4 functions as the dominant part of the active material to contribute an extraordinarily high theoretical capacity. TiO2 nanoparticles and rGO nanosheets can effectively shorten the electron/ion diffusion channels and construct a highly conductive matrix for the fast transfer of electron and Li+. Meanwhile, both of them can also efficaciously buffer the volume change effect during lithiation/delithiation process. As expected, rGO/TiO2/Mn3O4/Ti3C2Tx material has presented significantly outstanding lithium ion storage capabilities, high Coulombic efficiency, excellent long-term cyclability and superior rate capability. For an example, the rGO/TiO2/Mn3O4/Ti3C2Tx anode exhibits high specific capacity of 887.2 mA h g-1 at 0.05 A g−1, almost 2.2 times as much as that of raw Ti3C2Tx anode (404.9 mA h g-1). Even after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, the rGO/TiO2/Mn3O4/Ti3C2Tx anode can still deliver a capacity of 221.5 mA h g−1. Thus the rGO/TiO2/Mn3O4/Ti3C2Tx anode can be ascribed to have a novel 3D sandwich-like collective benefit from the 0D/2D/3D particles/sheets/layers nanoarchitecture and can be used as a promising anode material for high performance LIBs.