Synthesis of TiNb2O7 by mechanical alloying and subsequent heat treatment as an anode material for Li-ion batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used as rechargeable power sources for various devices. One of the main challenges in lithium-ion batteries is achieving high charging speeds. For this purpose, titanium-niobium-oxygen compounds are used as new anodes for lithium-ion batteries. Mechanochemical synthesis consisted of high energy ball milling of constituents followed by a heat treatment process is one of the solid-state methods that can be used to synthesize this material. In this work, the nanostructured TiNb
2
O
7
has been synthesized by ball milling of TiO
2
and Nb
2
O
5
raw materials and subsequent heat treatment. The structural, morphological and elemental characterizations have been done by XRD, SEM, and EDS analysis, respectively. The electrochemical properties of batteries were measured by rate performance and capacity retention tests. These tests show that the samples retain 65% of their initial capacity after 200 cycles, and batteries contain more than 85% of their initial capacity after 45 cycles.