SBA-15 confined synthesis of TiNb₂O₇ nanoparticles for lithium-ion batteries

Unlike most conventional anode materials, the newly developed TiNb ₂O₇ (TNO) does not form a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer, which makes it safe for high power requiring lithium-ion batteries. In this paper, we demonstrated an SBA-15 confined synthetic approach to prepare TNO nanoparticles (S-TNO) with a small particle size around 10 nm and a large BET surface area of 79.5 m² g^-1. It is worth mentioning that this is the smallest size reported so far for TNO. In contrast, the TNO (L-TNO) synthesized without SBA-15 has a particle size above 100 nm and a BET surface area of only 4.3 m² g^-1. The S-TNO shows better lithium-ion storage properties than L-TNO. The excellent electrochemical performance of S-TNO is attributed to its small crystalline size, which not only provides a larger effective area for better contact between the electrode material and the electrolyte, but also reduces the rate-limiting Li diffusion path. Moreover, S-TNO shows a high Coulombic efficiency (above 98% over 300 cycles) and negligible increase of impedance after cycling, which confirms no SEI layer formation in the operational voltage (1-3 V) of TNO.