Electrospun Titania Oxide Nanofibers Coupled Zinc Oxide Nanobranches as a Novel Nanostructure for Lithium Ion Batteries Applications

Abstract

First, electrospinning of colloidal solution consisting of titanium isopropoxide/poly(vinyl acetate) zinc nanoparticles has been achieved to produce polymeric nanofibers embedding solid nanoparticles. Calcination of the obtained electrospun nanofiber mats in air at 600 °C has been revealed to produce TiO2 nanofibers containing ZnO nanoparticles; ZnO-doped TiO2 nanofibers. The formed ZnO nanoparticles have been exploited as seeds to outgrow ZnO branches around the TiO2 nanofibers using a hydrothermal technique. As anode in lithium ion battery, the prepared nanostructure exhibited a high rate capacity of 1232 mAhg–1.