New insight of in-situ generation of composite cathode by converting Na3V2(PO4)3@C to improve aqueous zinc-ion batteries’ performance

Abstract

The NASICON-structure Na3V2(PO4)3 is attracted lots of attention due to its three-dimensional ion diffusion channels, high discharging platform and small volume deformation, which has become the most potential cathode material candidates for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Nevertheless, we found that [email protected] undergoes a structural phase change which is converted to composite (V2O5, NaV3(PO4)3, Zn3V4(PO4)6) after 50 cycles in this study. Here, we exploited the in-situ generation of composite by cycling the [email protected] batteries at 60 °C for only 1 cycle ([email protected] °C) to promote the performance of cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. The [email protected] ℃ display a high capacity of 164 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g−1 and excellent rate performance (155 mA h g−1 at 1000 mA g−1) are realized. This is the first reported in-situ generation of composite as a cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries so far. This work breaks the original conventional thinking to present new insight to developing cathode materials for zinc energy storage.