Novel synthesis of low carbon-coated Li3V2(PO4)3 cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

• LVP/C is successfully prepared by a novel refluxing-assisted solid-state reaction.
• The LVP/C composite contains much lower carbon than that prepared by hydrothermal method.
• The LVP/C exhibits more uniform morphology and a smaller size.
• The LVP/C shows a desirable electrochemical performance.

A novel refluxing-assisted solid-state reaction (RE-SSR) has been developed to prepare Li3V2(PO4)3/C (LVP/C) composite; hydrothermal-assisted solid-state reaction (HT-SSR) method is employed for comparison. The as-obtained composites have been characterized with XRD, Raman spectrum, SEM, and electrochemical measurements. XRD results indicate that the samples are well indexed as monoclinic LVP. Low carbon-coated LVP prepared by RE-SSR (LVP/C(RE)) shows better electronic conductivity and lower charge-transfer resistance. For LVP/C(RE), SEM image shows uniform morphology and small particle size. It delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 162.3 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and an average capacity of 138.5 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C. Our experiments demonstrate that the low carbon-coated LVP cathode material prepared by RE-SSR exhibits better electrochemical performance than that prepared by HT-SSR.