An Electrochemically Anodic Study of Anatase TiO2 Tuned through Carbon-Coating for High-performance Lithium-ion Battery

•Carbon-coated anatase TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared via a novel and facile in-situ methodology.•TiO2/C nanocomposites exhibite high capacity and notable rate performances as anode in lithium-ion batteries.•Such composite can offer great potential promise in large-scale energy storage applications.

A novel and facile in-situ methodology has been developed to prepare well carbon-coated anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. The hydrolysis of tetrabutyl titanate has been effectively controlled in a collosol of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone dissolved with polyvinylidene fluoride. The as-resulted carbon-dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles distributed in ranges from 20 to 30 nm in diameter have been obtained with a carbon content of 11.7 wt%. This nanocomposite utilized as anode materials in lithium-ion battery can deliver a high reversible specific capacity of 218 mAh g−1 at the current density of 0.2 C (33.5 mA g−1), and still exhibit 100 mAh g−1 at 10 C (1.68 A g−1), illustrating notable high-rate performances for the potential application in fast charge/discharge batteries.