Direct access to mesoporous crystalline TiO₂/carbon composites with large and uniform pores for use as anode materials in lithium ion batteries

Mesoporous and highly crystalline TiO₂ (anatase)/carbon composites with large (>5 nm) and uniform pores were synthesized using PI-b-PEO block copolymers as structure directing agents. Pore sizes could be tuned by utilizing block copolymers with different molecular weights. The resulting mesoporous TiO₂/carbon was successfully used as an anode material for Li ion batteries. Without addition of conducting aid (Super P), the electrode showed high capacity during the first insertion/desertion cycle due to carbon wiring inside the walls of mesoporous TiO₂/carbon. The electrode further showed stable cycle performance up to 50 cycles and the specific charge capacity at 30 C was 38 mA h (g of TiO₂) ^-1, which indicates CCM-TiO₂/carbon can be used as a material for high rate use.