Methods for Synthesizing Vanadium Oxide Nanobelts and Applications as Cathode Materials for Batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021043929-A1
Application number	US-202016894249-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 5, 2020
Priority date	Aug 7, 2019
Publication date	Feb 11, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

In general, the present disclosure is directed to methods for synthesizing vanadium oxide nanobelts, as well as the corresponding chemical composition of the vanadium oxide nanobelts. Also described are materials which can incorporate the vanadium oxide nanobelts, such as including the vanadium oxide nanobelts as a cathode material for use in energy storage applications (e.g., batteries). The vanadium oxide nanobelts described herein display structural characteristics that may provide improved diffusion and/or charge transfer between ions. Thus, batteries incorporating implementations of the current disclosure may demonstrate improved properties such as higher capacity retention over charge discharge cycling.

First claim

1 . A method of forming a vanadium oxide nanobelt, the method comprising:
Combining a vanadium compound, an alkali metal salt, and an alkaline earth metal salt in a sealable vessel; Sealing the vessel; and Heating the sealed vessel at a temperature for a time period, wherein the vanadium compound has an oxidation state of +3 or +5.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vanadium compound includes vanadium chloride and/or ammonium vanadate.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the alkaline earth metal salt comprises a calcium salt.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the calcium salt includes calcium nitrate, calcium chloride, or calcium hydroxide.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the alkali metal salt comprises a sodium salt.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the sodium salt includes sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, sodium nitrate, or sodium nitrite.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sealable vessel comprises an autoclave.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein combining the vanadium compound, the alkali metal salt, and the alkaline earth metal salt in the sealable vessel comprises:
producing a solution containing the vanadium compound, the alkali metal salt, and the alkaline earth metal salt dissolved in a solvent, wherein the solution has a pH between about 6.00 and about 8.00.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the solvent comprises water.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the pH is between about 6.50 and about 7.50.

11 . A composition for a cathode, the composition comprising NaCaVO.

12 . The composition of claim 11 , wherein the composition includes the empirical formula NaCa 0.6 V 6 O 16 .

13 . The composition of claim 12 , wherein the composition comprises water, the composition is a hydrate, or both.

14 . The composition of claim 13 , wherein the hydrate includes between two to 4 water molecules.

15 . The composition of claim 11 , wherein the NaCaVO has a surface area of about 120 m 2 g −1 to about 160 m 2 g −1 .

16 . A battery comprising:
the cathode of claim 11 and an anode comprising zinc.

17 . The battery of claim 16 , wherein the battery retains greater than 75% of capacity after about 10,000 charge-discharge cycles relative to the first charge-discharge cycle.

18 . The battery of claim 16 , wherein the battery displays an energy density of about 240 to about 260 Wh kg −1 at about 0.1 A/g.

19 . The battery of claim 16 further comprising an electrolyte.

20 . The battery of claim 19 , wherein the electrolyte comprises Zn(CF 3 SO 3 ) 2 .

Assignees

• Univ South Carolina

Inventors

• Huang Kevin
• Zhu Kaiyue

Classifications

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• C01P2004/17

  Nanostrips, nanoribbons or nanobelts, i.e. solid nanofibres with two significantly differing dimensions between 1-100 nanometer · CPC title

• C01P2002/85

  by XPS, EDX or EDAX data · CPC title

• C01P2002/72

  by d-values or two theta-values, e.g. as X-ray diagram · CPC title

• C01P2006/40

  Electric properties · CPC title