Mixed metal engineering of V2O3 hollow nanoprisms encapsulated in N-doped carbon as anode for high-performance lithium-ion storage

Vanadium trioxide (V2O3) is a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its high theoretical capacity. However, it faces severely hindered in practice by its low electrical conductivity and serious volume change. Mixed metal engineering could improve electrochemical reactivity and ion transport by modulating surface interface structure, thus upgrading host material performance. Herein, the metallic Ni nanocrystals are evenly distributed in V2O3 hollow nanoprisms wrapped by nitrogen-doped carbon (Ni-V2O3 @NC) through a facile self-template method. The unique hollow nanoprism structure can effectively mitigate volume expansion, while the metallic Ni nanograins and N-doped carbon layer can enhance the electric conductivity and adjust the surface structures of host material toward better activity. Metallic Ni nanograins also act as catalyst, which may bring additional reversible capacity to composite. Due to the interaction of components, the as-accomplished Ni-V2O3 @NC nanocomposite exhibits excellent specific capacity (927 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1), cycling stability and rate performance.