A composite of Nb2O5 and MoO2 as a high‐capacity high‐rate anode material for Li‐ion batteries

A composite of Nb2O5 and MoO2 was synthesised using a hydrothermal reaction (225 °C) followed by a short heat-treatment step (600 °C) to achieve a high-capacity, high-rate anode for Li-ion battery applications. The composite was shown via powder X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy to be an intimate mix of individual oxide particles rather than an atomically mixed oxide material. The composite was shown by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) to contain a 45:55 ratio of Nb:Mo. This composite oxide is demonstrated to show notable rate capability in Li half-cell cycling and rate tests. When cycled at 100C this material achieved over 100 mAhg-1 even after 400 cycles and shows a stable reversible capacity of 514 mAhg-1 (at 1C), realising its theoretical capacity. This composite shows electrochemical results comparable to Nb2O5:C composites yet achieves far higher capacities at lowrate due to the MoO2 content