Storage of Lithium-Ion by Phase Engineered MoO3 Homojunctions

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-10, Vol.12 (21), p.3762
• Main Authors: Ng, Dickon H. L., Li, Sheng, Li, Jun, Huang, Jinning, Cui, Yingxue, Lian, Jiabiao, Wang, Chuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anode materials; Electric fields; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Electronic structure; Homojunctions; Ion storage; Ion transport; Lithium; Lithium-ion batteries; lithium-ion storage; Molybdenum trioxide; Morphology; phase engineering; Reaction kinetics; Rechargeable batteries; Specific capacity; Spectrum analysis; Voltammetry
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano12213762

With high theoretical specific capacity, the low-cost MoO3 is known to be a promising anode for lithium-ion batteries. However, low electronic conductivity and sluggish reaction kinetics have limited its ability for lithium ion storage. To improve this, the phase engineering approach is used to fabricate orthorhombic/monoclinic MoO3 (α/h-MoO3) homojunctions. The α/h-MoO3 is found to have excessive hetero-phase interface. This not only creates more active sites in the MoO3 for Li+ storage, it regulates local coordination environment and electronic structure, thus inducing a built-in electric field for boosting electron/ion transport. In using α/h-MoO3, higher capacity (1094 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1) and rate performance (406 mAh g−1 at 5.0 A g−1) are obtained than when using only the single phase h-MoO3 or α-MoO3. This work provides an option to use α/h-MoO3 hetero-phase homojunction in LIBs.