Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a prospering material
for lithium-ion cathode storage attributed to its unique structure
and high specific capacity. However, the cycling and rate performance
of VO2 is unsatisfactory due to low electrical conductivity
and tendency to volume expansion during charging and discharging,
which restricts its application. To improve its cell performance,
we report 3D hierarchical flower-like VO2 hollow microspheres
assembled from nanosheets (HVO) synthesized by a facile template-free
hydrothermal method. In addition, by controlling the content of nitric
acid (HNO3) and citric acid (C6H8O7), VO2 flower-like solid microspheres (SVO)
and random nanosheets (NVO) were synthesized as control experiments.
Compared with them, 3D hierarchical flower-like VO2 hollow
microspheres have higher reversible capacity (delivers a capacity
of 259.90 mA h g–1 at 0.1 A g–1), extraordinary rate capacity (168.51 mA h g–1 at 2 A g–1), and good cycling life (81.21% capacity
retention over 500 cycles at 2 A g–1). Moreover,
the HVO//graphite full cell was successfully assembled, which exhibits
an initial capacity of 147.17 mA h g–1 at 2 A g–1 and maintains a high capacity of 114.97 mA h g–1 after 1000 cycles, with capacity retention of 78.12%
and an average capacity decline of 0.022% per cycle. The superior
performance of 3D hierarchical flower-like VO2 hollow microspheres
stems from their ability to provide a considerable surface area, efficient
self-expansion, and self-shrinkage buffering. The abovementioned results
sufficiently confirm that 3D hierarchical flower-like VO2 hollow microspheres constituted from nanosheets have great latent
potential and application prospects as a next-generation cathode material
for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries.