Defect‐rich bronze titanium dioxide ultrathin nanosheets supported on carbon nanotubes for enhanced lithium‐ion storages.

Summary: Bronze titanium dioxide (TiO2[B]) is widely used to improve lithium‐ion storage performances owing to their open crystal structure, pseudocapacitance effect, and high theoretical specific capacity. However, the reported storage performances of TiO2(B) for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are not ideal, due to the sluggish lithium‐ion diffusivity and poor electronic conductivity. Herein, mesoporous TiO2(B) ultrathin nanosheets with rich oxygen vacancies supported on carbon nanotubes (TiO2[B]‐CNTs) were constructed to enhance lithium‐ion storages via a simple solvothermal method combined with an annealing process under Ar atmosphere. The CNTs substrate in situ induces the orderly growth of mesoporous TiO2(B) ultrathin nanosheets with ~5 nm thinness and rich oxygen vacancies into a stabilized microstructure, which not only prevent aggregation of nanosheets, but also ensure effective exposure surface, as well as enhance the electronic conductivity. As‐obtained TiO2(B)‐CNTs electrodes in LIBs at 0.1 A g−1 after 100 cycles still show superior cycling performances with ~280 mAh g−1. Specifically, the TiO2(B)‐CNTs electrodes maintain good long‐term cycling performances. The specific capacities reached ~230 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1in the 700th cycle, and ~150 mAh g−1 at 2.0 A g−1 in the 1000th cycle, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]