Owing to their unique structural advantages, TiO2 hierarchical nanostructures assembled by low-dimensional (LD) building blocks have been extensively used in the energy-storage/-conversion field. However, it is still a big challenge to produce such advanced structures by current synthetic techniques because of the harsh conditions needed to generate primary LD subunits. Herein, a novel one-dimensional (1D) TiO2 hierarchical porous fibrous nanostructure constructed by TiO2 nanobelts is synthesized by combining a room-temperature aqueous solution growth mechanism with the electrospinning technology. The nanobelt-constructed 1D hierarchical nanoarchitecture is evolves directly from the amorphous TiO2/SiO2 composite fibers in alkaline solutions at ambient conditions without any catalyst and other reactant. Benefiting from the unique structural features such as 1D nanoscale building blocks, large surface area, and numerous interconnected pores, as well as mixed phase anatase-TiO2(B), the optimum 1D TiO2 hierarchical porous nanostructure shows a remarkable high-rate performance when tested as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries (107 mA h g-1 at ∼10 A g-1) and can be used in a hybrid lithium-ion supercapacitor with very stable lithium-storage performance (a capacity retention of ∼80% after 3000 cycles at 2 A g-1). The current work presents a scalable and cost-effective method for the synthesis of advanced TiO2 hierarchical materials for high-power and stable energy-storage/-conversion devices.
Keywords: TiO2; fast lithium-ion storage; one-dimensional hierarchical nanostructures; ultrathin nanobelts.