HTiNbO5 has been widely investigated in many fields
because of its distinctive properties such as good redox activity,
high photocatalytic activity, and environmental benignancy. Here,
this work reports the synthesis of one-dimensional H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires via simple electrospinning
followed by an ion-exchange reaction. The H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires consist of many small “lumps”
with a uniform diameter distribution of around 150 nm. Used as an
anode for lithium-ion batteries, H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires exhibit high capacity, fast electrochemical kinetics,
and high performance of lithium-ion uptake. A capacity of 144.1 mA
h g–1 can be carried by H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires at 0.5 C in the initial charge, and even
after 150 cycles, the reversible capacity can remain at 123.7 mA h
g–1 with an excellent capacity retention of 85.84%.
For H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires, the
diffusion coefficient of lithium ions is 1.97 × 10–11 cm2 s–1, which promotes the lithium-ion
uptake effectively. The outstanding electrochemical performance is
ascribed to its morphology and the formation of a stable phase during
cycling. In addition, the in situ X-ray diffraction and ex situ transmission
electron microscopy techniques are applied to reveal its lithium storage
mechanism, which proves the structure stability and electrochemical
reversibility, thus achieving high-performance lithium-ion uptake.
All these advantages demonstrate that H0.92K0.08TiNbO5 nanowires can be a possible alternative anode material
for rechargeable batteries.