Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance of LiV3O8/MWCNTs Cathode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Layered LiV3O8 cathode material was prepared by sol-gel method using ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) as chelon, and LiV3O8/MWCNTs composite materials were fabricated by mixing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and LiV3O8 particles via ball milling technic. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), galvanostatic charge-discharge experiments were employed to characterize the material structure, morphology and electrochemical properties respectively. The results show that the layer structure of LiV3O8 did not change after doping MWCNTs, and the LiV3O8/MWCNTs composite showed excellent electrochemical performance. The initial specific discharge capacity of the 2% MWCNTs （mass percent） composites can reach 217.5 mAh/g at 0.1C discharge rate in the potential region 1.8-4.0V, and maintains a stable capacity of 224.9 mAh/g within 30 cycles. Comparing to the LiV3O8/MWCNTs, the capacity of pure LiV3O8 samples can only remain 86% intetial specific capacity at the same test conditions.