Embedding amorphous lithium vanadate into carbon nanofibers by electrospinning as a high-performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries

We design and fabricate a novel hybrid with amorphous lithium vanadate (LiV₃O_x, LVO for short) uniformly encapsulated into carbon nanofibers (denoted as LVO@CNFs) via an easy electrospinning strategy followed by proper postannealing. When examined for use as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the optimized LVO@CNFs present a high discharge capacity of 603 mAh g⁻¹ with a capacity retention as high as 90% after 200 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹ and a high rate capacity of 326 mAh g⁻¹ after 400 cycles even at a high rate of 5 A g⁻¹. The superior electrochemical performance with excellent cycling stability and rate capability is attributed to the full encapsulation of the amorphous LVO into the conductive carbon nanofibers, which hold enlarged electrochemically active sites for lithium storage, facilitate the charge transfer, and efficiently alleviate the volume changes upon lithium insertion/extraction. More importantly, the current synthesis can be a general strategy to fabricate various alkaline earth metal vanadates, which is promising for developing advanced electrochemical energy storage devices.