High stability and conductivity of TiO2/CuO composite nanofibers controlled by structuring and synergistic effects

The modification of TiO 2 is a vigorous and challenging research field. In the present study, TiO 2 /CuO composite nanofibers , designed by considering the thermodynamics of nanocrystals , have been synthesized by an electrospinning and hydrothermal method . The results showed that the grain growth of uniform and highly active CuO was driven by the surface drag force of TiO 2 nanofibers. TiO 2 /CuO showed an alternating current impedance as low as 2.874 Ω, and the Li + diffusion rate was increased tenfold compared to that of bare TiO 2 nanofibers. Equally importantly, the electron diffusion kinetics was also explored, which revealed that the band gap was reduced by 1.14 eV compared to that for bare TiO 2 nanofibers. In addition, TiO 2 /CuO exhibited satisfactory stability and electrochemical performance. Its initial discharge capacity was 540 mAh·g −1 , and that after discharge over 400 cycles at 0.1 C was 174 mAh·g −1 . The design method may be more broadly applied to various nanostructured TiO 2 materials.