Synthesis and lithium storage properties of vanadium oxide nanotubes (VO_xNTs)-Polyaniline nanocomposite as cathode material for lithium ion batteries

A novel VO_xNTs-Polyaniline nanocomposite was prepared by hydrothermal treatment and a wet-chemistry method. When this VO_xNTs-Polyaniline was used as cathode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), it displayed much higher specific capacity and better cycling stability compared with the pristine VO_xNTs. The improvement of electrochemical performance could be attributed to the effective removal of a large part of organic template without any electrochemical activity by cationic exchange process and the incorporation of polyaniline with good conductivity as well as lithium storage property in itself via chemical oxidative polymerization. Moreover, the polyaniline could also behave as a useful structural buffer, alleviating the strain during repeated Li⁺ intercalation/deintercalation and contributing to cyclic stability. It is hopeful to further improve its performance through the complete elimination of useless soft-template and increasing the crystallinity of active VO_x, making this novel VO_xNTs-Polyaniline a promising cathode candidate with high performance for LIBs.