Facile preparation of V2O5/PEDOT core-shell nanobelts with excellent lithium storage performance

Abstract

1D vanadium pentoxide materials have been extensively studied because of their fascinating properties and versatile applications. If they could be manufactured on a large scale, 1D V2O5 materials would be attractive for more commercial applications. In this work, we report a novel rapid-heating-assisted polymerization strategy to prepare 1D V2O5/PEDOT core-shell nanobelts. By rapid heating the freeze-dried V2O5 hydrogel, we can immediately obtain large quantities of uniform V2O5 nanobelts with high purity. After coating an ultrathin PEDOT skin, the resultant 1D V2O5/PEDOT core-shell cathode exhibits excellent rate performance and superior cycling stability, as compared to the commercial V2O5 powders. We present an important approach toward mass-producing 1D V2O5 nanomaterials and can be extended to preparing other 1D materials for potential applications ranging from electronics to energy conversion and storage.