Storage of Lithium-Ion by Phase Engineered MoO3 Homojunctions

With high theoretical specific capacity, the low-cost MoO3 is known to be a promising anode for lithium-ion batteries. However, low electronic conductivity and sluggish reaction kinetics have limited its ability for lithium ion storage. To improve this, the phase engineering approach is used to fabricate orthorhombic/monoclinic MoO3 (alpha/h-MoO3) homojunctions. The alpha/h-MoO3 is found to have excessive hetero-phase interface. This not only creates more active sites in the MoO3 for Li+ storage, it regulates local coordination environment and electronic structure, thus inducing a built-in electric field for boosting electron/ion transport. In using alpha/h-MoO3, higher capacity (1094 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1)) and rate performance (406 mAh g(-1) at 5.0 A g(-1)) are obtained than when using only the single phase h-MoO3 or alpha-MoO3. This work provides an option to use alpha/h-MoO3 hetero-phase homojunction in LIBs.

Automated summary

The research found that the phase-engineered α/h-MoO3 homojunctions have excessive hetero-phase interface, creating more active sites for Li+ storage and inducing a built-in electric field to enhance electron/ion transport. This has led to higher capacity and rate performance in lithium-ion batteries compared to using single-phase MoO3.