Advanced titania nanostructures and composites for lithium ion battery

Owing to the increasing demand of energy and shifting to the renewable energy resources, lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have been considered as the most promising alternative and green technology for energy storage applied in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and other electric utilities. Owing to its environmental benignity, availability, and stable structure, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most attractive anode materials of LIBs with high capability, long cycling life, high safety, and low cost. However, the poor electrical conductivity and low diffusion coefficient of Li-ions in TiO2 hamper the advancement of TiO2 as anode materials of LIBs. Therefore, intensive research study has been focused on designing the nanostructures of TiO2 and its composites to reduce the diffusion length of Li-ion insertion/extraction and improve the electrical conductivity of the electrode materials. In this article, the development of TiO2 and its composites in nano-scales including fabrication, characterization of TiO2 nanomaterials, TiO2/carbon composite, and TiO2/metal oxide composites to improve their properties (capacity, cycling performance, and energy density) for LIBs are reviewed. Meanwhile, the mechanisms for influences of the structure, surface morphology, and additives to TiO2 composites on the related properties of TiO2 and TiO2 composites to LIBs are discussed. The new directions of research on this field are proposed.