Li2MoO3 microspheres with excellent electrochemical performances as cathode material for lithium-ion battery

Layered Li2MoO3 (LMS) is a promising building block for constructing high capacity positive electrode materials for lithium-ion battery applications. But the samples without a well-controlled morphology restrict the improvement of the performance. By using the MoO2 microsphere as a self-template, Li2MoO3 materials with a hierarchical micro-spherical morphology were prepared successfully. The structural details were analyzed by XRD, SEM, TEM, and EDS techniques, while N-2 adsorption and desorption isotherm confirmed that Li2MoO3 microspheres have a mesoporous structure with a surface area similar to 7.4 times larger than bulk Li2MoO3. Therefore, LMO microsphere exhibits an excellent electrochemical performance. It can deliver the capacities of 246.91, 184.75, 160.10, 127.57, 99.61, and 75.63 mA h g(-1) at the current densities of 34, 100, 170, 340, 680, and 1000 mA g(-1), which are larger than the values of the bulk samples at the same rates. Our experiments also confirmed that the special morphology is helpful for the reduction of the charge transfer resistance and the improvement of the reaction activity and reversibility of the materials.