Titanate-derived Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles displaying improved lithium storage performance

In the present work, a facile synthetic method has been used to prepare Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with titanate as the precursor. The synthesized electrode materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Furthermore, the Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries and exhibited improved lithium-ion storage properties. For instance, Nb-doped TiO2 showed a high capacity of 134.1 mA h g-1 at 30 C, while undoped TiO2 exhibited a low capacity of 76.8 mA h g-1. These improvements may be associated with enhanced conductivity due to Nb doping.