Hierarchically porous core-shell microspheres assembled from Mn2O3/TiO2 nanoparticles for enhanced lithium storage

In this paper, monodispersed bicomponent microspheres were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method with MnSO4 center dot H2O acting as soft templates, the target product takes a porous spherical morphology and hierarchical core-shell configuration assembled by primary TiO 2 and Mn2O3 nanoparticles. In evaluating as anode, the Mn2O3/TiO2 electrodes exhibit extraordinarily higher reversible capacity (around 1000 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 100 mA/g up to 180 cycles) than bare TiO2, also deliver advanced rate performance and impressive cyclability (250 mAh g(-1) even at 2000 mA g(-1) after 1000 cycles) for promising lithium storage. The enhanced performance can be traceable to the synergistic effect and tightly coupled interfacial jointing of different components. Specifically, the differential capacity (dQ/dV) analysis has been applied to explore the capacity increasing behavior during the repeated deep cycles, indicating it is essentially related to the electrochemical reconstruction. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.