The effect of nitrogen annealing on lithium ion intercalation in nickel-doped lithium trivanadate

The communication reports an exploratory experimental study on the effects of nitrogen annealing on lithium ion intercalation in nickel-doped lithium trivana- date cathodic electrodes for lithium ion batteries. It shows good rate performance with discharge capacities of 348.6, 252.6, 191.9 and 96.7 mAh g-1 at 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 5 C, respectively. Nitrogen annealing resulted in the formation of parasitic secondary-phase LiVzO5 and appreciably increased tetravalent vanadium ions compensated with oxygen vacancies, which would enhance the electronic conductivity and lithium ion diffusivity and promote the interface interaction and deintercalation process, and thus lead to the enhanced lithium ion intercalation properties. The possible impacts of the parasitic secondary-phase LiV205 on the lithium ion intercalation performance have also been discussed.

Coherent Mn3O4-carbon nanocomposites with enhanced energy-storage capacitance

Nanostructured Mn3O4 was introduced to activated C （AC） by a novel sonochemical reaction, and the resulting nanocomposites were examined as supercapacitor electrodes. The sonication not only catalyzed the redox reaction but also promoted the diffusion of the precursors, causing the formation of coherent nanocomposites with Mn3O4 nanoparticles grown and uniformly distributed inside the mesopores of the AC. In addition, the extreme local condition in the sonochemical synthesis yielded an excessive amount of divalent manganese ions and oxygen vacancies. This novel microstructure endowed the sample with a superior performance, including a specific capacitance of 150 F/g compared with the value of 93 F/g for AC at a charge/discharge rate of 100 mA/g. A Li-ion capacitor delivered an energy density of 68 Wh/kg, compared with 41 Wh/kg for the AC capacitor at a power density of 210 W/kg.

Insights into the stable and fast lithium storage performance of oxygen-deficient LiV_(3)O_(8) nanosheets

Oxygen-deficient LiV_(3)O_(8) is considered as one of the promising cathode materials for lithium ion batteries(LIBs)because of its high cycling stability and rate capability.However,it is very difficult to control and study the content and position of V^(4+)and oxygen vacancies in LiV_(3)O_(8),and therefore the mechanism of improving electrochemical performance of LiV_(3)O_(8) is still unclear.Herein,we developed four LiV_(3)O_(8) nanosheets with different V^(4+)and oxygen vacancy contents and positions.The physicochemical and lithium storage properties indicate that the V^(4+)and oxygen vacancies in the surface layer increase the contribution of pseudocapacitive lithium storage on the nanosheet surface.The V^(4+)and oxygen vacancies in the lattice improve the electrical conductivity of LiV_(3)O_(8),and enhance the phase transformation and lithium ion diffusion rates.By adjusting the content of V^(4+)and oxygen vacancies,we obtained an oxygen-deficient LiV_(3)O_(8) nanosheet which maintained more than 93%of the initial reversible capacity after 300 cycles at 5,000 mA·g^(−1).The V^(4+)and oxygen vacancies play an important role in improving the stability and rapidity of lithium storage.This work is helpful to understand the stable and fast lithium storage mechanism of oxygen-deficient LiV_(3)O_(8),and might lay a foundation for further studies of other oxygen-deficient metal oxide electrodes for long-life and high-power LIBs.