Facile synthesis of TiO 2 /WO 3 nanocomposites and the electrochemical lithiation/delithiation activity

TiO 2 is an attractive anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). However, the low theoretical capacity and poor conductivity greatly hinder its potential applications. In this work, TiO 2 /WO 3 nanocomposites (NCs) are successfully synthesized by a one-step method of DC arc-discharge plasma. It is found that TiO 2 and WO 3 grains are closely combined into bigger particles by chemical/physical adherence, quite different from common connection ways of coating or mechanical mixing. In bigger particles, the combination of WO 3 and TiO 2 grains can reinforce their electrochemical activities, shorten the diffusion distance of Li + ions inside, and effectively avoid side reactions happening at the interface between two phases. Moreover, the WO 3 phase with a theoretical specific capacity of 694 mAh g −1 makes positive contributions to the TiO 2 -based materials in the capacity and conductivity. The TiO 2 /WO 3 NCs electrode delivers a stable discharge specific capacity of 557.2 mAh g −1 at a current density of 0.1 A g −1 over 100 cycles, which recovers to 664.1 mAh g −1 after suffering from intense current impacts up to 2.0 A g −1 . Graphical abstract