Amorphous TiO₂ shells: an Essential Elastic Buffer Layer for High-Performance Self-Healing Eutectic GaSn Nano-Droplet...

Gallium-based alloy liquid metal batteries currently face limitations such as volume expansion, unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film and substantial capacity decay. In this study, amorphous titanium dioxide is used to coat eutectic GaSn nanodroplets (eGaSn NDs) to construct the core-shell structure of eGaSn@TiO₂ nanodroplets (eGaSn@TiO₂ NDs). The amorphous TiO₂ shell (~6.5 nm) formed a stable SEI film, alleviated the volume expansion, and provided electron/ion transport channels to achieve excellent cycling performance and high specific capacity. The resulting eGaSn@TiO₂ NDs exhibited high capacities of 580, 540, 515, 485, 456 and 426 mAh g^-1 at 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 C, respectively. No significant decay was observed after more than 500 cycles with a capacity of 455 mAh g^-1 at 1 C. In situ X-ray diffraction (in situ XRD) was used to explore the lithiation mechanism of the eGaSn negative electrode during discharge. This study elucidates the design of advanced liquid alloy-based negative electrode materials for high-performance liquid metal batteries (LMBs).