The electrochemical performance of lithium vanadate/natural graphite composite material as anode for lithium ion batteries

Highlights: • Li₃VO₄/natural graphite is fabricated via a quasi sol gel method. • The fabrication method is facile and low cost. • The Li₃VO₄/natural graphite electrode shows excellent cycle stability and rate capability. - Abstract: Li₃VO₄ nanoparticles with mean size about 100 nm are uniformly deposited on the surface of natural graphite via a quasi sol gel method. The electrochemical performance of the Li₃VO₄/natural graphite composite as anode for lithium ion batteries is studied via galvanostatic battery testing, which shows excellent cycle stability and rate capability. At a specific current of 156 mA g⁻¹, it delivers discharge and charge capacity of 579 and 427 mAh g⁻¹ in the initial cycle, which maintain of 469 and 468 mAh g⁻¹ after 100 cycles. After 60 cycles at various specific currents from 234 to 11,719 mA g⁻¹, the discharge capacity can restore to 450 mAh g⁻¹ when reverting the discharge/charge current to 234 mA g⁻¹. It is demonstrated that natural graphite has important effect on the electrochemcial performance of the composite electrode, and an appropriate amount of natural graphite is beneficial to reduce the charge transfer resistance and maintain stable charge transfer process in cycling