Carbon‐Coated Li₃VO₄ Spheres as Constituents of an Advanced Anode Material for High‐Rate Long‐Life Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium‐ion batteries are receiving considerable attention for large‐scale energy‐storage systems. However, to date the current cathode/anode system cannot satisfy safety, cost, and performance requirements for such applications. Here, a lithium‐ion full battery based on the combination of a Li 3 VO 4 anode with a LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 cathode is reported, which displays a better performance than existing systems. Carbon‐coated Li 3 VO 4 spheres comprising nanoscale carbon‐coating primary particles are synthesized by a morphology‐inheritance route. The observed high capacity combined with excellent sample stability and high rate capability of carbon‐coated Li 3 VO 4 spheres is superior to other insertion anode materials. A high‐performance full lithium‐ion battery is fabricated by using the carbon‐coated Li 3 VO 4 spheres as the anode and LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 spheres as the cathode; such a cell shows an estimated practical energy density of 205 W h kg −1 with greatly improved properties such as pronounced long‐term cyclability, and rapid charge and discharge.