Facile synthesis of nanostructured vanadium oxide as cathode materials for efficient Li-ion batteries

Abstract

Homogeneous VO₂ (B) nanorods approximately 100 nm in width and 1–2 μm in length have been fabricated via the hydrothermal process, and are then transformed into irregularly shaped V₂O₅ nanoparticles of several hundreds nanometers large and 20–30 nm thick after annealing the precursor material at 500 °C for 30 min. Both the V₂O₅ sheet-like nanoparticles and VO₂ (B) nanorods were tested as active cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. The V₂O₅ sheet-like nanoparticles delivered a high discharge capacity of 281 mA h g⁻¹ at 50 mA g⁻¹ and 191 mA h g⁻¹ at 2400 mA g⁻¹; the material also demonstrated good cyclic stability with a small capacity loss of 35 mA h g⁻¹ after 40 cycles. The VO₂ (B) nanorods and V₂O₅ sheet-like nanoparticles prepared by the straightforward, environmental friendly and high yield route investigated in this study could prove to be promising candidates for efficient Li-ion batteries.