Highly Ordered Mesostructured Vanadium Phosphonate toward Electrode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Highly ordered mesostructured vanadium phosphonates (VP) have been synthesized in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-directing agent. Nitrilotris(methylene)triphosphonic acid (NMPA) and (ammonium/sodium) metavanadate (NH₄VO₃/NaVO₃) have been used for the construction of pore walls. The CTAB templates are removed from the materials by an extraction process without destroying the parent mesostructure. The formation mechanism for the ordered mesoporous structure and its impact on electrochemical application in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are explained by considering the structural and electrochemical stability of the framework. The results demonstrate that the counter cations (NH₄⁺/Na⁺) of the metavanadate precursors have a crucial role in stabilizing the mesoporous structure of the mesoporous VP materials. Mesoporous VP materials with highly ordered structure have great applicability as high-performance electrode materials in LIBs due to the advantages of their large contact area with electrolyte and short transport paths for lithium ions. Mesoporous VP electrodes exhibit high reversible specific capacity with superb cycling stability (100 cycles) and excellent retention of capacity (92 %).