The increasing demand for portable power has generated significant research interest in nanostructured electrode materials, essentially due to their large interfacial contact area with the electrolyte and short path lengths for Li-ion transport. To date, TiO₂ has been widely investigated as an electroactive Li-insertion host. However, lithium reactivity of brookite-type TiO₂ has rarely been addressed compared to the common polymorphs, anatase and rutile, due to the difficulties encountering in obtaining phase-pure brookite structure. Herein, we report the simple synthesis of monodispersed nanocrystalline brookite-type TiO₂ using titanium trichloride (TiCl₃) and urea ((NH₂)₂CO). The average size of the particles precipitated at 100^oC is ~ 10 nm. The brookite structure was stable up to 400^oC and was completely transformed to rutile structure at 1000^oC in O₂ atmosphere. We evaluated the electrochemical properties of each TiO₂ powder heat-treated at preset temperatures. The hybrid carbon/TiO₂ nanocomposites with high conductivity were also fabricated using stable suspension of 40 nm sized carbon black or multi-walled carbon nanotubes in aqueous suspension with an appropriate surfactant and subsequent precipitation of TiO₂. Incorporation of carbon clearly provides better capacity retention of TiO₂ upon cycling.

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