Synthesis and electrochemical properties of porous LiV 3O 8 as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the synthesis of porous LiV 3O 8 by using a tartaric acid-assisted sol–gel process and their enhanced electrochemical properties for reversible lithium storage. The crystal structure, morphology and pore texture of the as-synthesized samples are characterized by means of XRD, SEM, TEM/HRTEM and N 2 adsorption/desorption measurements. The results show that the tartaric acid plays a pore-making function and the calcination temperature is an important influential factor to the pore texture. In particular, the porous LiV 3O 8 calcined at 300 °C (LiV 3O 8-300) exhibits hierarchical porous structure with high surface area of 152.4 m 2 g −1. The electrochemical performance of the as-prepared porous LiV 3O 8 as cathode materials for lithium ion batteries is investigated by galvanostatic charge–discharge cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The porous LiV 3O 8-300 displays a maximum discharge capacity of 320 mAh g −1 and remains 96.3% of its initial discharge capacity after 50 charge/discharge cycles at the current density of 40 mA g −1 due to the enhanced charge transfer kinetics with a low apparent activity energy of 35.2 kJ mol −1, suggesting its promising application as the cathode material of Li-ion batteries.