Anatase TiO₂ as a Cheap and Sustainable Buffering Filler for Silicon Nanoparticles in Lithium‐Ion Battery Anodes

Abstract

The design of effective supporting matrices to efficiently cycle Si nanoparticles is often difficult to achieve and requires complex preparation strategies. In this work, we present a simple synthesis of low-cost and environmentally benign aAnatase TiO₂ nanoparticles as buffering filler for Si nanoparticles (Si@TiO₂ ). The average anatase TiO₂ crystallite size was approximately 5 nm. A complete structural, morphological, and electrochemical characterization was performed. Electrochemical test results show very good specific capacity values of up to 1000 mAh g^-1 and cycling at several specific currents, ranging from 500 to 2000 mA g^-1 , demonstrating a very good tolerance to high cycling rates. Postmortem morphological analysis shows very good electrode integrity after 100 cycles at 500 mA g^-1 specific current.