The combined benefits of mesoporosity and in situ grown conductive amorphous carbon on lithium storage capacity of anatase TiO 2 are discussed here. Micron-sized anatase TiO 2 spheres with equal amount of carbon but different degree of mesoporosity and normal mesoporous TiO 2 are synthesized by solvothermal and sol-gel methods respectively. While the specific surface areas were 80, 35 and 85 m 2 g −1 respectively for mesoporous carbon-TiO 2 sphere, carbon-TiO 2 sphere and mesoporous TiO 2 , the primary size of the grains constituting the micrometer sized spheres was ∼11 nm. The electrochemical lithium stored by all synthesized TiO 2 materials show strong dependency on mesoporosity and carbon. Mesoporous carbon-TiO 2 sphere exhibited a first discharge cycle capacity of 334 mAh g −1 at current rate of 66 mAg −1 , whereas carbon-TiO 2 sphere and mesoporous TiO 2 stored 120 and 270 mAh g −1 respectively. Demonstration of high lithium storage capacity and good cyclability in mesoporous carbon-TiO 2 sphere is attributed to the synergy of mesoporosity and in situ grown carbon in the formation of an effective percolation network for the conducting species (Li + /e − ) around TiO 2 nanoparticles.
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Das et al. (2011) studied this question.