Cr3+-doped Li3VO4 for enhanced Li+ storage

Li3VO4 has gained significant attention as a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries owing to its high specific capacity, low cost and safe working potential. Unfortunately, its disappointing electronic conductivity limits its rate performance. To address this problem, a series of Cr3+-doped Li3VO4 compounds are synthesized by solid-state reaction. The obtained Li3-xCr2xV1-xO4 compounds (x = 0, 0.01 and 0.02) have the same orthorhombic crystal structure (Pnm2(1) space group), suggesting the successful Cr3+ dopingin Li3VO4. Compared with Li3VO4, Li2.98Cr0.04V0.98O4 exhibits a two orders of magnitude larger electronic conductivity. Additional benefits of the Cr3+ doping include the increase of the diffusion coefficient and the decrease of the particle size. Consequently, Li2.98Cr0.04V0.98O4 displays not only a large reversible capacity (363 mAh g(-1) at 60 mA g(-1)) and superior cyclic stability (86.6% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 1200 mA g(-1)) but also decent rate performance (147 mAh g(-1) at 1200 mA g(-1)).