Titanium dioxide-based materials for alkali metal-ion batteries: Safety and development

Abstract

Recently, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely used in fields such as electric vehicles, electric tools and intelligent equipment. However, due to the shortage of lithium resources and high price of lithium, people have raised concerns about the future market of LIBs. Therefore, researchers are also developing other low-cost and high-performance alkali metal-ion batteries. Among them, sodium-ion batteries and potassium-ion batteries will be commercially applied in the near future, due to their rich raw materials, low cost and high energy density. However, alkali metal-ion batteries often face the fire problem during use, which has raised concerns among people. TiO₂-based materials are considered as a highly safe, environmentally friendly and non-toxic anode material or additive, which are expected to be used to alleviate the ignition problem of batteries. To facilitate the widespread adoption of TiO₂-based materials in the emerging energy storage market, this comprehensive review systematically examines the recent advancements in TiO₂-based materials for alkali metal-ion batteries, with a particular focus on their safety-related properties and electrochemical performance. Moreover, this work elucidates the critical scientific challenges and outlines promising research directions for TiO₂-based materials in addressing battery safety concerns, thereby providing valuable insights for future developments in this field.