Rutile TiO 2 nanorods grown on carbon nanotubes as high-performance lithium-ion batteries anode via one-dimensional electron pathways

Achieving the fast electron transport is an effective strategy to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Here, we develop a new method to quickly synthesize rutile TiO 2 nanorods grown carbon nanotubes (R-TiO 2 NR@CNTs) via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method in 10 min, in which the R-TiO 2 NR@CNTs sample was self-assembled by rutile TiO 2 nanorods on the backbone of carbon nanotubes. When the R-TiO 2 NR@CNTs was used as the anode for LIBs, it showed an initial discharge capacity of 315 mAh g −1 at 0.3 C which is higher than that of 270 mAh g −1 and 252 mAh g −1 for the physically mixed rutile TiO 2 and CNT (R-TiO 2 /CNTs) and pure rutile TiO 2 (R-TiO 2 ) electrodes, respectively. Furthermore, it also showed an excellent cycling performance with capacity retentions of 93 % at 1 C after 200 cycles. The excellent lithium storage performance of R-TiO 2 NR@CNTs sample may be contributed by the shortened electrons transfer distance via one-dimensional pathways along the CNTs and TiO 2 nanorods. This work reports an effective strategy to quickly synthesize the electroactive materials for LIBs and proposes a fast electrochemical kinetics with shortened electron pathways. Graphical abstract