Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an attractive anode material for energy storage devices due to its low-volume-change and high safety. However, TiO2 anodes usually suffer from poor electrical and ionic conductivity, thus causing dramatic degradation of electrochemical performance at rapid charge/discharge rates, which has hindered its use in energy storage devices. Here, we present a novel strategy to address this main obstacle via using nanoarchitectured TiO2 anode consisting of mesoporous TiO2 wrapped in carbon on a tunnel-like etched aluminum substrate prepared by a simple one-step approach. As a result of this nanoarchitecture arrangement, the anode exhibits excellent rate performance and superior cyclability. A rate up to 100 C is achieved with a high specific capacity of about 95 mA h g(-1), and without apparent decay after 8,000 cycles.