Superior high-rate lithium-ion storage on Ti2Nb10O29 arrays via synergistic TiC/C skeleton and N-doped carbon shell

Directional construction of high-rate anode is of great importance for the development of next-generation large-power lithium ion batteries. In the present work, we report a powerful combined strategy for smart construction of omnibearing conductive networks composed of TiC/C arrays core and N-doped carbon (NC) shell to sandwich Ti2Nb10O29 (TNO) nanoparticles forming integrated NC-TNO@TiC/C core/shell arrays. Except for good electronic conductivity and high rigidity from TiC/C arrays skeleton, lower energy barrier of Li ion is obtained via the N-doped carbon layer facilitating the ion/electron transport kinetics according to DFT results. Accordingly, the NC-TNO@TiC/C electrode shows preeminent high-rate capacities (318 mA h g(-1) at 1 C and 202 mA h g(-1) at 50 C) and a long cycle life with a capacity retention of 85% after 10,000 cycles at 10 C, better than other TNO counterpart due to the positive synergistic effect on enhanced ion/electron transfer and reinforced structure from conductive NC outer layer and TiC/C skeleton. The full cell assembled by NC-TNO@TiC/C anode and LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode also shows excellent electrochemical properties with promising application prospect. This polybasic structure design could offer guidelines for fabrication of other hybrid high-rate electrodes for energy storage devices.