Hierarchically porous core-shell microspheres assembled from Mn2O3/TiO2 nanoparticles for enhanced lithium storage

In this paper, monodispersed bicomponent microspheres were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method with MnSO 4 ·H 2 O acting as soft templates, the target product takes a porous spherical morphology and hierarchical core-shell configuration assembled by primary TiO 2 and Mn 2 O 3 nanoparticles . In evaluating as anode, the Mn 2 O 3 /TiO 2 electrodes exhibit extraordinarily higher reversible capacity (around 1000 mAh g −1 at a current density of 100 mA/g up to 180 cycles) than bare TiO 2 , also deliver advanced rate performance and impressive cyclability (250 mAh g −1 even at 2000 mA g −1 after 1000 cycles) for promising lithium storage. The enhanced performance can be traceable to the synergistic effect and tightly coupled interfacial jointing of different components. Specifically, the differential capacity (dQ/dV) analysis has been applied to explore the capacity increasing behavior during the repeated deep cycles, indicating it is essentially related to the electrochemical reconstruction.