THE THIO-SOL-GEL SYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM DISULFIDE AND NIOBIUM DISULFIDE PART 2. - MORPHOLOGY, DEFECT STRUCTURE AND ELECTROCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TITANIUM DISULFIDE

The thio-sol-gel process has been used to synthesize TiS2 powders exhi biting different morphologies, from randomly agglomerated to radially oriented TiS2 crystallites from a single precursor. It has been shown that different heat-treatment conditions can be utilized to simultaneo usly control the morphology of the sulfide powder and its defect conce ntration. Thus a variety of morphologies with crystallite sizes-in the range of 2 mu m to less than 0.5 mu m and with defect concentrations (x in Ti1+xS2,) in the range of 0.003 less than or equal to x less tha n or equal to 0.03 have been synthesized. The crystallite sizes have b een quantified using scanning electron microscopy and defect concentra tions have been measured by determining the lattice parameter of the c rystal. The performance of these materials as cathodes in secondary li thium batteries has also been evaluated and correlated to the crystall ite size distributions and defect concentration.