A universal cooperative assembly-directed method for coating of mesoporous TiO(2) nanoshells with enhanced lithium storage properties

TiO(2) is exceptionally useful, but it remains a great challenge to develop a universal method to coat TiO(2) nanoshells on different functional materials. We report a one-pot, low-temperature, and facile method that can rapidly form mesoporous TiO(2) shells on various inorganic, organic, and inorganic-organic composite materials, including silica-based, metal, metal oxide, organic polymer, carbon-based, and metal-organic framework nanomaterials via a cooperative assembly-directed strategy. In constructing hollow, core-shell, and yolk-shell geometries, both amorphous and crystalline TiO(2) nanoshells are demonstrated with excellent control. When used as electrode materials for lithium ion batteries, these crystalline TiO(2) nanoshells composed of very small nanocrystals exhibit remarkably long-term cycling stability over 1000 cycles. The electrochemical properties demonstrate that these TiO(2) nanoshells are promising anode materials.