Over the next decade, advanced lithium-based secondary batteries will require high-performance anodes to achieve superior energy density and cycling stability. In this work, anatase titanium dioxide nanotube arrays (TiO2 NTs) are fabricated on ultrathin Ti paper through anodization and subsequently thermal annealing. An urchin-like 2H-MoS2 coating is subsequently deposited onto the TiO2 NTs substrate through magnetic sputtering, constructing a self-supported hierarchical architecture without any additives. Electrochemical characterizations demonstrate that the MoS2/TiO2 NTs/Ti composite exhibits lower charge transfer resistance, enhanced rate capability, and improved cycling stability compared with bare TiO2 NTs/Ti and worm-like MoS2/Ti control groups. Structural analysis and density functional theory calculations further confirm that the strong interfacial interaction between MoS2 and TiO2 effectively stabilizes interfacial integrity during repeated cycling. Upon leveraging tunable geometric structure and mass loadings, this study offers a facile route for developing various types of advanced lithium-based secondary batteries.
Wu et al. (2026) studied this question.