Boosting fast energy storage by synergistic engineering of carbon and deficiency

Shengjue Deng; He Zhu; Guizhen Wang; Mi Luo; Shenghui Shen; Changzhi Ai; Liang Yang; Shiwei Lin; Qinghua Zhang; Lin Gu; Bo Liu; Yan Zhang; Qi Liu; Guoxiang Pan; Qinqin Xiong; Xiuli Wang; Xinhui Xia; Jiangping Tu

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13945-1

Boosting fast energy storage by synergistic engineering of carbon and deficiency

Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 9;11(1):132. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13945-1.

Authors

Shengjue Deng¹, He Zhu², Guizhen Wang³, Mi Luo⁴, Shenghui Shen¹, Changzhi Ai³, Liang Yang³, Shiwei Lin³, Qinghua Zhang⁵, Lin Gu⁶, Bo Liu¹, Yan Zhang¹, Qi Liu^{7

8}, Guoxiang Pan⁹, Qinqin Xiong¹⁰, Xiuli Wang¹, Xinhui Xia¹¹, Jiangping Tu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, and School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, PR China.
² Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, PR China.
⁴ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201210, PR China.
⁵ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, PR China.
⁶ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, PR China. l.gu@iphy.ac.cn.
⁷ Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, PR China. qiliu63@cityu.edu.hk.
⁸ Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518057, PR China. qiliu63@cityu.edu.hk.
⁹ Department of Materials Chemistry, Huzhou University, Huzhou, 313000, PR China.
¹⁰ College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, Zhejiang, PR China.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, and School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, PR China. helloxxh@zju.edu.cn.

Abstract

Exploring advanced battery materials with fast charging/discharging capability is of great significance to the development of modern electric transportation. Herein we report a powerful synergistic engineering of carbon and deficiency to construct high-quality three/two-dimensional cross-linked Ti₂Nb₁₀O_29-x@C composites at primary grain level with conformal and thickness-adjustable boundary carbon. Such exquisite boundary architecture is demonstrated to be capable of regulating the mechanical stress and concentration of oxygen deficiency for desired performance. Consequently, significantly improved electronic conductivity and enlarged lithium ion diffusion path, shortened activation process and better structural stability are realized in the designed Ti₂Nb₁₀O_29-x@C composites. The optimized Ti₂Nb₁₀O_29-x@C composite electrode shows fast charging/discharging capability with a high capacity of 197 mA h g^-1 at 20 C (∼3 min) and excellent long-term durability with 98.7% electron and Li capacity retention over 500 cycles. Most importantly, the greatest applicability of our approach has been demonstrated by various other metal oxides, with tunable morphology, structure and composition.