Synthesis of Ti-based electrodes using Ti-salt flocculated sludge and their application in lithium-ion batteries

We report a simple strategy to synthesize the nanostructured TiO2 samples by a solid state reaction using Ti-salt flocculated sludge. The structure and morphology of the Ti-salt flocculated sludge, nanostructured TiO2 samples and pure commercial Aldrich TiO2 powder were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The electrochemical performances were evaluated in coin type cells. Nanostructured TiO2 samples, obtained by Ti-salt flocculated sludge shows a higher capacity and better cycling performances than pure commercial Aldrich TiO2 powder at the cutoff of 1.0–2.5 V especially at high current rate. The enhanced cycling performance can be attributed to the facts that their high crystallinity and uniform nano-sized distribution.