Scalable Fabrication of Carbon-Networked Size-Tunable V2O3 for Lithium Storage

Vanadium sesquioxide (V2O3) is a promising electrode material for lithium-ion batteries and beyond, yet it encounters structural and cyclic instability issues. Although advances have been made with diverse material combination prototypes, the capacity or role of V2O3 is complicated, limiting rational design and performance enhancement. Herein, we demonstrate a simple, scalable intercalation and annealing strategy for synthesizing carbon-knitted V2O3, impressively in a V2O3 size-tunable manner. While holding similar morphology, composition, and pore structure, the hybrid with similar to 3 nm V2O3 delivers stable cycling simultaneously with greatly improved capacity (similar to 450 mAh g(-1)) and initial Coulombic efficiency (similar to 87%) compared with its counterparts. This enhancement is verified by correlating it to the change in capacitive contribution. The study provides a smart and tailorable material model for understanding the lithium storage behavior of V2O3 and opens an avenue to combinedly improve stability, capacity, and initial Coulombic efficiency of V2O3 and other high-capacity intercalatable electrode materials.