Silicon-titanium nanocomposite synthesized via the direct electrolysis of SiO2/TiO2 precursor in molten salt and their performance as the anode material for lithium ion batteries

In this paper, a facile metallurgical method named molten salt electrolysis was introduced to synthesize silicon-titanium nanocomposite that was used as the anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Simply utilizing SiO 2 and TiO 2 mixture as the raw materials, upon the direct electrolysis in the molten salt chamber, the oxide precursor was reduced constantly to the complete production of silicon-titanium nanocomposite. Benefiting from the compositional and structural advantages of sample, the as-obtained silicon-titanium anode delivered enhanced reversible specific capacity and good cycling stability such as the initial discharge capacity of 1410.5 mAh g −1 with the columbic efficiency of 80.72% and reversible 638.1 mAh g −1 with a high retention of 92.2% just after the anode cycling for 50 times. The average specific capacity fading percentage was only 0.16% per cycle between the 4 th to 50 th cycles, the result of which showed a good electrochemical performance for lithium ion storage.