Ionic Liquid‐Directed Nanoporous TiNb2O7 Anodes with Superior Performance for Fast‐Rechargeable Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Nanoporous TiNb2O7 (NPTNO) material is synthesized by a sol–gel method with an ionic liquid (IL) as the nanoporous structure directing template. NPTNO exhibits a high reversible capacity of 210 mAh g–1 even at the charging rate of 50 C and an excellent cyclability of half-cell capacity retention of 74% for 1000 cycles at 5 C and LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4-coupled full-cell capacity retentions of 81% and 87% for 1000 cycles at 1 C and 2 C, respectively. The studies of the 1000 cycled NPTNO electrode illustrate that the IL-directed mesoporous structure can enhance the cyclability of NPTNO cells due to the alleviation of repetitive mechanical stress and volume fluctuation induced by the repetitive Li+ insertion-extraction processes. The measured Li+ diffusion coefficients from the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique suggest that the IL-templating strategy indeed ensures the fast rechargeability of NPTNO cells based on the fast Li+ diffusion kinetics. Benefitting from the nanoporous structure, NPTNO with unhindered Li+ diffusion pathways achieves a superior rate capability in the titanium-based oxide materials and the best full-cell cyclability in the TNO materials. Therefore, the templating potential of IL is demonstrated, and the superb electrochemical performance establishes the IL-directed NPTNO as a promising anode candidate for fast-rechargeable LIBs.