High Rate Capability and Enhanced Cyclability of Na3 V2 (PO4 )2 F3 Cathode by In Situ Coating of Carbon Nanofibers for Sodium-Ion Battery Applications

Jing Zhao; Yu Gao; Qiang Liu; Xing Meng; Nan Chen; Chunzhong Wang; Fei Du; Gang Chen

doi:10.1002/chem.201704131

High Rate Capability and Enhanced Cyclability of Na₃ V₂ (PO₄ )₂ F₃ Cathode by In Situ Coating of Carbon Nanofibers for Sodium-Ion Battery Applications

Chemistry. 2018 Feb 26;24(12):2913-2919. doi: 10.1002/chem.201704131. Epub 2018 Feb 5.

Authors

Jing Zhao¹, Yu Gao¹, Qiang Liu¹, Xing Meng¹, Nan Chen¹, Chunzhong Wang¹, Fei Du¹, Gang Chen¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Physics and Technology for Advanced Batteries (Ministry of Education), State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials College of, Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P.R. China.

PMID: 29266446
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201704131

Abstract

A facile chemical vapor deposition method is developed for the preparation of carbon nanofiber (CNF) composite Na₃ V₂ (PO₄ )₂ F₃ @C as cathodes for sodium-ion batteries. In all materials under investigation, the optimized composite content, denoted as NVPF@C@CNF-5, shows excellent sodium storage performance (86.3 % capacity retention over 5000 cycles at 20 C rate) and high rate capability (84.3 mA h g^-1 at 50 C). The superior sodium storage performance benefits from the enhanced electrical conductivity of the working electrode after formation of a composite with CNF. Furthermore, the full cell using NVPF@C@CNF-5 and hard carbon as the cathode and anode, respectively, demonstrates an impressive electrochemical performance, realizing an ultrahigh rate charge/discharge at a current rate of 30 C and long-term stability over 1000 cycles. This approach is facile and effective, and could be extended to other materials for energy-storage applications.

Keywords: carbon nanofibers; chemical vapor deposition; electrochemistry; nanostructures; sodium-ion batteries.