Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been working towards meeting the great challenges faced in the development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Xin-bo Zhang and co-workers have proposed a facile, effective, and scalable dissolution-splitting method to synthesize large-area V₂O₅ nanosheets with high purity using low-cost raw materials (pictured).

The resultant nanosheets have interesting electrochemical features including greatly enhanced lithium storage properties in contrast to their parent bulk crystal. They can deliver a high power density of 15.6 kWkg^–1 while the energy density remains as high as 260 Whkg^–1, which would bridge the performance gap between batteries and supercapacitors. The nanosheets also have very high reversible capacities (290 mAhg^–1), and good cycling stability and rate performance (144 mAhg^–1 at 10C and 95 mAhg^–1 at 20C) over a wide temperature range.

The authors reveal that “The proposed synthetic strategy may be easily extended to other layered materials which can be used in broad fields including catalysis and sensors”.

_{Images: © Wiley-VCH}

• Facile and Low-Cost Synthesis of Large-Area Pure V₂O₅ Nanosheets for High-Capacity and High-Rate Lithium Storage over a Wide Temperature Range,
  Z.-l. Wang, D. Xu, L.-m. Wang, X.-b. Zhang,
  ChemPlusChem 2012.
  DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201100051

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