Capacity Revival of Tungsten trioxide Anode Material in Lithium-Ion Battery

Transitional Metal Oxides (TMOs) has been considered as one of the promising candidates for anode materials in Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high theoretical capacities. However, low electronic conductivity, volume expansion during discharge/charge cycles and poor rate capability challenges its further use in LIBs. In this work, unique behavior of self-revival in the capacity with cycling is presented. Self-revival in the capacity was attained by doping pristine tungsten trioxide (WO3) with nitrogen at high temperature. The percentage increase of self-revived discharge capacity corresponding to the preceding discharge capacity at cycles, 9th (412.85 Vs 370.95 mAhg(-1)), 13th (405.24 Vs 390.95 mAhg(-1)) and 36th (552.38 Vs 138.57 nuthe) cycles were 11.29%, 3.65% and 298.63%, respectively. This interesting phenomenon of self-capacity revival can be attributed to the reduction in the particle size of WO3 that leads to high surface area. In addition, the created oxygen vacancies and defects make the reduced WO3 electrochemically active and enhance the catalytic activity.