The synthesis, characterization and electrochemical properties of Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotube-induced vanadium oxide nanosheet composite as a novel cathode material for lithium ion batteries

In this paper, MWCNT (Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotube)-induced vanadium oxide nanosheet composite is synthesized via sol–gel method and subsequent hydrothermal treatment process. TEM and SEM tests confirmed that the synthesized product shows a rectangular sheet-like nanostructure with the length of several micrometers, width of a few hundred nanometers and thickness of dozens of nanometers. The analysis of XRD verified the monoclinic crystal structure of the vanadium oxide nanosheet. The XPS results manifested that V4+ is predominant in the V element of vanadium oxide nanosheet. The corresponding electrochemical performance examinations indicated this nanosheet-MWCNT composite with distinct single phase transition feature exhibits high specific capacity and good cycling stability due to its sheet-like nanostructure and uniform adding of MWCNTs, which makes this novel vanadium oxide nanosheet-MWCNT composite quite suitable and promising as cathode material for Li+ ion batteries applications.