In situ construction of TiVO₄/TiVCT _x Schottky heterostructure: toward excellent lithium-ion storage

For the development of high-performance active electrode materials for lithium-ion storage, the construction of transition metal oxide/MXene heterostructures is regarded as an effective strategy to simultaneously resolve the low electrical conductivity of transition metal oxides and the interlayer self-stacking of MXene. In this work, a TiVO₄/TiVCT _x bimetallic Schottky heterostructure was fabricated using an in situ hydrothermal method, wherein TiVO₄ nanoparticles were uniformly anchored on the surface of TiVCT _x nanosheets. TiVO₄ suppresses the self-stacking of TiVCT _x , and the enlarged active specific surface area exposes more lithium storage sites. Consistent with expectations, the heterostructure electrode exhibits excellent lithium storage performance. It reaches a specific capacity of 460 mAh g^-1 at 0.05 A g^-1, and maintains 160 mAh g^-1 at a high rate of 5.00 A g^-1. After 300 cycles at 0.1 A g^-1, it reaches a high capacity of 482 mAh g^-1 without any capacity fading, whereas TiVO₄ and TiVCT _x achieve only 348 and 298 mAh g^-1, respectively, under identical conditions. These results present a feasible strategy for the design of bimetallic MXene-based heterostructures and offer new insights into the development of high-performance electrode materials for lithium-ion storage.