Mesoporous crystalline metal oxide as anode materials for lithium ion batteries

A novel solution growth of metal oxide nanocrystals within an organized surfactant matrix into mesoporous three-dimensional nanostructured frameworks with tunable mesoporosity was developed. Mesoporous crystalline transition metal oxide including CeO₂, SnO₂, TiO₂, and composite oxide TiO₂/SnO₂ was synthesized. Nanostructured TiO₂ has attracted much attention in Li insertion because it is not only a low voltage insertion host for Li, but also a fast Li insertion/extraction host. These characteristics render it a potential anode material for high-power lithium-ion batteries. The synthesized mesoporous crystalline TiO₂ were tested as anode materials for their cycling ability and stability. The mesoporous TiO₂ was able to reversibly accommodate Li up to Li_0.5TiO₂ (168 mA-hr/g) at 1-3 v vs. Li⁺/Li with excellent capacity retention and high rate capability on cycling. Other mesoporous crystalline metal oxide including composite TiO₂/SnO₂ was studied in terms of capacities and stability as anode materials. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (Salt Lake, UT 11/4-9/2007).