Structural water engaged disordered vanadium oxide nanosheets for high capacity aqueous potassium-ion storage.

Charles, Daniel Scott; Feygenson, Mikhail; Page, Katharine; Neuefeind, Joerg; Xu, Wenqian; Teng, Xiaowei · Nat Commun · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Aqueous electrochemical energy storage devices using potassium-ions as charge carriers are attractive due to their superior safety, lower cost and excellent transport properties compared to other alkali ions. However, the accommodation of potassium-ions with satisfactory capacity and cyclability is difficult because the large ionic radius of potassium-ions causes structural distortion and instabilities even in layered electrodes. Here we report that water induces structural rearrangements of the vanadium-oxygen octahedra and enhances stability of the highly disordered potassium-intercalated vanadium oxide nanosheets. The vanadium oxide nanosheets engaged by structural water achieves high capacity (183 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> in half-cells at a scan rate of 5 mV s<sup>-1</sup>, corresponding to 0.89 charge per vanadium) and excellent cyclability (62.5 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> in full cells after 5,000 cycles at 10 C). The promotional effects of structural water on the disordered vanadium oxide nanosheets will contribute to the exploration of disordered structures from earth-abundant elements for electrochemical energy storage.