Facile synthesized nanorod structured vanadium pentoxide for high-rate lithium batteries

Nano-structured vanadium oxide (V(2)O(5)) is fabricated via a facile thermal-decomposition of vanadium precursor, vanadyl oxalate, which is produced by reacting micro-sized V(2)O(5) with oxalic acid. The V(2)O(5) nanoparticles produced by this method exhibit much better electrochemical performance than commercial micro-sized V(2)O(5). The optimized-nanorod electrodes give the best specific discharge capacities of 270 mAh g(-1) at C/2 (147 mA g(-1)) coupled with good cycle stability with only 0.32% fading per cycle. Even at a high rate of 4C (1176 mA g(-1)), the nanorod electrode still delivers 198 mAh g(-1). These results suggest that the well-separated V(2)O(5) nanorod is a good cathode material for high-rate lithium battery applications.