Sea urchins like Na2Ti3O7 as long cycling and high-rate performance anodes for Li-ion batteries

Due to its special Z-shaped layered structure, Na2Ti3O7 has great potential as an anode material for lithium-ion battery application. However, the poor electrical conductivity and cycle life have seriously affected its application in practice. In this paper, we prepared a sea urchin shaped Na2Ti3O7 material by a simple hydrothermal method. This special morphology allows the material to have a large specific surface area, which can better contact with the electrolyte and increase the active site number. The half-cells assembled with sea urchin-like Na2Ti3O7 show excellent cycling performance and good rate performance. After 1000 cycles at a 1 C rate, the specific capacity of NTO maintains at 70%. Even at a 5 C rate, NTO-2 delivers a discharge capacity of 71 mAh g-1 after 1000 cycles. The method proposed can be extended to other new anode materials to boost their electrochemical performances.