MgV₃O₈ incorporated carbon nanofibers as anode material for high-performance lithium-ion batteries

The rich redox chemistry of vanadate-based materials makes them a potential anode for the fabrication of advanced lithium-ion batteries (LiBs). However, poor electrical conductivity as well as volume variation of vanadate-based anode materials hinders practical applications. Herein, magnesium vanadate (MgV₃O₈) incorporated carbon nanofibers (CNFs) (MgVO@CNFs) composites were prepared via a simple and scalable electrospinning technique, followed by pyrolysis. The synergistic effect of MgVO and CNFs effectively offers a good conductive path and excellent integrity between the active particles with highly porous network. As an anode for LiBs, the MgVO@CNFs composite electrode exhibited good discharge capacity values of 457 mA h g⁻¹ (over 300 cycles) and 245 mA h g⁻¹ (over 500 cycles) at 0.1 and 0.5 A g⁻¹, respectively and revealed excellent rate performance. The charge storage mechanism of MgVO@CNFs is contributed by both capacitive and diffusion-controlled behaviors. Consequently, this novel preparation process of the MgVO@CNFs may provide a new idea for the fabrication of different kinds of nanostructures for LiB applications.