Morphological and crystallite size impact on electrochemical performance of electrospun rutile and rutile/multiwall carbon nanotube nanofibers for lithium ion batteries

A sol-gel based route was used to produce TiO2 based nanocomposites. Sols were electrospun into continuous nanofibers and calcined to get rutile phase. Fibers with diameter around 100 nm and crystallites size between 10 and 50 nm were obtained. The morphological impact and crystallites size dependence of the electrochemical performance for as-synthesized materials are reported. Enhancements using inert calcination atmosphere and incorporation of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) into the system are also presented.