Honeycomb-Spherical Co₃O₄-TiO₂ Hybrid Materials for Enhanced Lithium Storage

Graphical abstract: The honeycomb-spherical Co₃O₄-TiO₂ composite has been successfully synthesised though a hydrothermal method with deionized water and ethanol as solvent. The Co₃O₄-TiO₂ composite displays a enhanced electrochemical performance compared with pure Co₃O_4. - Highlights: • We introduces an effective route to prepare a honeycomb-spherical Co₃O₄-TiO₂ anode material for lithium ion batteries. • The composite shows improved cycling ability and rate performance when being used in half and full cells. • The honeycomb-spherical Co₃O₄ and the introduction of TiO₂ are responsible for the enhanced electrochemical performance. - Abstract: This work introduces an effective, inexpensive and large-scale production route to the fabrication of a novel honeycomb-spherical Co₃O₄-TiO₂ nanocomposite anode material for use in rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The microstructure and phase composition of the Co₃O₄-TiO₂ product were characterized systematically. The Co₃O₄-TiO₂ nanocomposite electrode yielded fairly high reversible capacity of ∼1000 mAh/g at 200 mA/g after 100 cycles. Moreover, the electrode exhibited extraordinary rate ability and could regain its original specific capaities as reversing to the low current densities. Meanwhile, when being applied as anode material in full cells, it still achieved remarkably improved electrochemical performance compared with traditional graphite material. Noticeably, in-situ XRD measurement verified the conversion mechanism for the Co₃O₄-TiO₂ electrode. The likely contributing factors to these outstanding electrochemical properties of the Co₃O₄-TiO₂ nanocomposite could be related to the distinctive morphology including interlaced Co₃O₄ nanoflakes (NFs) and the TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs), which contains superior structural stability and allows more channels for the Li⁺ insertion/extraction reaction. This research shows that the as-prepared Co₃O₄-TiO₂ nanocomposite could be suitable for use as a favorable cycle performance anode material for lithium ion batteries.