V2O5 Aerogel as a Versatile Cathode Material for Lithium and Sodium Batteries

Vanadium oxide gels are appealing cathode materials as they offer multiple electron redox processes leading to high cation-storage capacities. Moreover, they are able to intercalate different ionic and molecular species. Apart from low electronic conductivity, one of the main factors hindering the use of highly porous V2O5 gels is the difficulty in preserving their unique morphology, made up of an entangled network of thin ribbons, during conventional laminated electrode preparation. In this study, we tune the V2O5 synthesis conditions and use an innovative and green binder system (polyacrylic acid and ethanol) to obtain electrodes with a morphology optimized for ion intercalation. The electrochemical performance of such electrodes, tested against lithium and sodium anodes, are shown to be excellent.