A facile synthesis of heteroatom-doped carbon framework anchored with TiO₂ nanoparticles for high performance lithium ion battery anodes

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂)-based materials have been well studied because of the high safety and excellent cycling performance when employed as anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), whereas, the relatively low theoretical capacity (only 335 mAh g⁻¹) and serious kinetic problems such as poor electrical conductivity (~ 10⁻¹³S cm⁻¹) and low lithium diffusion coefficient (~ 10⁻⁹ to 10⁻¹³ cm² s⁻¹) hinder the development of the TiO₂-based anode materials. To overcome these drawbacks, we present a facile strategy to synthesize N/S dual-doping carbon framework anchored with TiO₂ nanoparticles (NSC@TiO₂) as LIBs anode. Typically, TiO₂ nanoparticles are anchored into the porous graphene-based sheets with N, S dual doping feature, which is produced by carbonization and KOH activation process. The as-obtained NSC@TiO₂ electrode exhibits a high specific capacity of 250 mAh g⁻¹ with a coulombic efficiency of 99% after 500 cycles at 200 mA g⁻¹ and excellent rate performance, indicating its promising as anode material for LIBs.