Hydrothermal Synthesis of a-MoO3 Nanorods with High Rate Performance as Electrode Material for Lithium Ion Batteries

Abstract

Various transition metal oxides have been intensively studied as high capacity electrode materials of lithium ion batteries in recent years. Molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) is one of lithium intercalation materials which lithium ions can be reversibly inserted electrochemically. It is stable layered orthorhombic structure which makes lithium ions to intercalate in double sheet layers build up by MoO6 octahedra. Although it shows good structural stability, cycle life and rate characteristic of this material are not good due to low electronic conductivity. To enhance electrochemical property, nanostructured materials have been attracted as one of key solutions by reducing dimensions for higher de/intercalation rates. From this point of view, nanomaterials with narrow size distribution and uniform morphology are required for lithium insertion host materials. Here, uniform a-MoO3 nanorods have been synthesized with the width of ~ nm and the length of ~ nm by simple hydrothermal method. The phase and morphology of -MoO3 are investigated by XRD, SEM, and TEM, respectively. The MoO3 nanorod delivers ~290 mAh/g at a rate of 100 mA/g, and it exhibits excellent high rate performance compared to commercial one. The capacity retention with cycles is also characterized as a coin cell.