Novel V2O5/S composite cathode material for the advanced secondary lithium batteries

Abstract The amorphous V 2 O 5 (a-V 2 O 5 )/S composite cathode material was prepared by mechanical mixing with a-V 2 O 5 gel and elemental sulfur. The main analysis tools were scanning electron microscopy, pore size distribution, charge–discharge test, electrical impedance spectroscopy and so on. The results showed that initial discharge capacity was declined for the composite cathode, which was 514 mAh g − 1 , compared with elemental sulfur cathode (597 mAh g − 1 ), however, it was found that the composites electrode possessed better capability of high current than that of sulfur electrode, the discharge capacity kept at 286 mAh g − 1 at 0.8 mA cm − 2 and was 55.6% of that at 0.1 mA cm − 2 , but the discharge capacity of sulfur at 0.8 mA cm − 2 was only 18.8% of that at 0.1 mA cm − 2 . The addition of a-V 2 O 5 could decrease the resistance of composites electrode, leading to remarkably improve the capability of high current discharge.