Open Access

Öznil Budak, Pattarachai Srimuk, Mesut Aslan, Hwirim Shim, Lars Borchardt, Volker Presser

• This work introduces the facile and scalable two-step synthesis of Ti 2 Nb 10 O 29 (TNO)/carbon hybrid material as a promising anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The first step uses a mechanically-induced self-sustaining reaction via ball-milling at room temperature to produce titanium niobium carbide with a stoichiometric ratio of Ti and Nb of 1 to 5. The second step involves the oxidation of as-synthesized titanium niobium carbide to produce TNO. Synthetic air yields fully oxidized TNO, while annealing in CO 2 results in TNO/carbon hybrids. The electrochemical performance for the hybrid and non-hybrid electrodes was surveyed for a narrow potential window (1.0-2.5 V vs. Li/Li + ) and a large potential window (0.05-2.5 V vs. Li/Li + ). The best hybrid material displayed a specific capacity of 350 mAh/g at a rate of 0.01 A/g (144 mAh/g at 1 A/g) in the large potential window regime. The electrochemical performance of hybrid materials is superior compared to non-hybrid materials for operation within the large potential window. Due to the advantage of carbon in hybrid material, the rate handling is faster than that of the non-hybrid one. The hybrid materials display robust cycling stability and maintain ca. 70% of their initial capacities after 500 cycles. In contrast, only ca. 26% of the initial capacity is maintained after the first 40 cycles for non-hybrid materials. We also applied our hybrid material as an anode in a full-cell lithium-ion battery by coupling it with commercial LiMn 2 O 4 .