Amorphous FeVO4/Mesoporous Carbon Composite: A Novel Cathode Material of Lithium-Ion batteries

Lithium ion batteries have been considered as one of the best candidates of the new environmental-friendly energy storage devices. However the low specific capacity of cathode materials becomes the main bottle-neck issue that lithium ion batteries face. Therefore it is imperative to develop new cathode materials to solve this problem. Vanadium-based cathode material such as FeVO₄ with double valences change has important theoretical significance and practical utility for the development of high capacity lithium ion batteries. As everyone knows, the low electronic conductivity of FeVO₄ results in the poor cycle stability and rate performance. To improve the electronic conductivity of FeVO₄, herein amorphous FeVO₄/mesoporous carbon composite was synthesized via an in-situ method. The FeVO₄ was successfully filled in the hole of the carbon. Mesoporous carbon has many advantages in favor of the improved electrochemical properties of FeVO₄ such as the high conductivity of mesoporous carbon has high specific surface, large pore volum can loading more FeVO₄, the transfer distance ions and electrons is confined inside the mesoporous, and the amorphous state of FeVO₄ is kept during cycling due to the confinement of the mesoporous carbon. The discharge capacity of the first cycle were as high as 249 mAh/g. The discharge capacity was kept 228 mAh/g after 40 cycles.