Development of novel mesoporous C–TiO2–SnO2 nanocomposites and their application to anode materials in lithium ion secondary batteries

Herein, we employed the tetra-constituent co-assembly method based on the acid–base pair of Sn and Ti precursors. Using this method, novel mesoporous carbon–TiO₂–SnO₂ nanocomposite materials were prepared and their structural change with an increase of SnO₂ amount was investigated. In low amount of SnO₂, an ordered mesoporous structure was observed but it became collapsed at 64 wt.% SnO₂, while crystal size of anatase TiO₂ embedded within amorphous SnO₂ and carbon matrix became larger. When applied to anode materials in lithium ion batteries, an increase of the reaction peaks of Li⁺ in SnO₂ was observed and peak associated with discharging in TiO₂ nano-crystal increased in spite of lower amount of TiO₂. This indicated that TiO₂ was highly utilized for lithium storage (275 mAh g⁻¹ in 19.9 wt.% TiO₂ case). In the nanocomposite electrode with 28.8% TiO₂, however, a high rate …​