Acquisition of high‐energy density is the highest priority requirement and unending challenge in energy storage systems including lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). One theoretically preferable way to reach this goal is the use of cathode active materials such as vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) that relies on multielectron insertion/extraction reactions. Application of V2O5 to LIB cathodes, however, has been mostly focused on V2O5 materials themselves with little emphasis on V2O5‐incorporated cathode sheets. Here, as an unusual electrode‐architecture approach to achieve ultrahigh‐capacity V2O5 cathode sheets, a new class of self‐standing V2O5 cathode sheets is demonstrated based on V2O5/multiwalled carbon tubes (MWNTs) mixtures spatially besieged by polyacrylonitrile nanofibers (referred to as “VMP cathode sheets”). Notably, the VMP cathode sheet is fabricated directly via one‐pot synthetic route starting from V2O5 precursor (i.e., through concurrent electrospraying/electrospinning followed by calcination), without metallic foil current collectors/carbon powders/polymeric binders. The one‐pot synthesis allows dense packing of V2O5 nanoparticles in close contact with MWNT electronic networks and also formation of well‐developed interstitial void channels (ensuring good electrolyte accessibility). This material/architecture uniqueness of the VMP cathode sheet eventually enables significant improvements in cell performance (particularly, gravimetric/volumetric capacity of cathode sheets) far beyond those accessible with conventional electrode technologies.
Supercapacitors (SCs) have garnered considerable attention as an appealing power source for forthcoming smart energy era. An ultimate challenge facing the SCs is the acquisition of higher energy density without impairing their other electrochemical properties. Herein, we demonstrate a new class of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/multi-walled carbon tube (MWNT) heteromat-mediated ultrahigh capacitance electrode sheets as an unusual electrode architecture strategy to address the aforementioned issue. Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is chosen as a model electrode material to explore the feasibility of the suggested concept. The heteromat V2O5 electrode sheets are produced through one-pot fabrication based on concurrent electrospraying (for V2O5 precursor/MWNT) and electrospinning (for PAN nanofiber) followed by calcination, leading to compact packing of V2O5 materials in intimate contact with MWNTs and PAN nanofibers. As a consequence, the heteromat V2O5 electrode sheets offer three-dimensionally bicontinuous electron (arising from MWNT networks)/ion (from spatially reticulated interstitial voids to be filled with liquid electrolytes) conduction pathways, thereby facilitating redox reaction kinetics of V2O5 materials. In addition, elimination of heavy metallic foil current collectors, in combination with the dense packing of V2O5 materials, significantly increases (electrode sheet-based) specific capacitances far beyond those accessible with conventional slurry-cast electrodes.
An ion/electron-conductive nanoshield based on a SWCNT-embedded, dual-doped mesoporous carbon shell (that was derived from the molecularly designed PVIm[DS]) was presented as an exceptional interfacial control strategy for lithium-ion battery cathode materials.
In article 1600173, a self‐standing (V2O5/MWNTs)/PAN nanofibers‐mediated cathode sheet is presented as a new concept of electrode architecture for high‐capacity/high‐performance lithium‐ion battery cathodes by Sang‐Young Lee and co‐workers. The one‐pot synthesis of the V2O5 cathode sheet via concurrent electrospraying/electrospinning process followed by calcination enabled unprecedented improvements in the gravimetric/volumetric cathode capacity, rate capability and cycling performance far beyond those accessible with conventional electrode technologies.
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