Copper Doped Li3VO4 as Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Li3VO4 has been considered as a promising anode material because of its high theoretical capacity (394mAh g(-1)) and zero strain during the charge and discharge processes. However, its electronic conductivity is low, which has led to an electrochemical performance unfavourable for practical application. In this work, copper-doped Li3VO4 is prepared by a simple and inexpensive sol-gel method. The doped Li3VO4 delivers high initial discharge and charge capacities of up to 63 mAh g(-1) after 25 cycles for 5 % Cu-doped material at a rate of 0.5 C. Conductive Cu is found to enable better Li+ ion storage due to the improved electronic conductivity, Li ion diffusion, and structural stability, improving cycling and rate performance. This work provides some hints for preparing Li3VO4 based anodes with high electrochemical performance.