LiCl/PVA gel electrolyte stabilizes vanadium oxide nanowire electrodes for pseudocapacitors.
Here we report a new strategy to improve the electrochemical stability of vanadium oxide electrodes for pseudocapacitors. Vanadium oxides are known to suffer from severe capacitance loss during charging/discharging cycling, due to chemical dissolution and ion intercalation/deintercalation-induced material pulverization. We demonstrate that these two issues can be addressed by using a neutral pH LiCl/PVA gel electrolyte. The function of the gel electrolyte is twofold: (i) it reduces the chemical dissolution of amphoteric vanadium oxides by minimizing water content and providing a neutral pH medium and (ii) it serves as a matrix to maintain the vanadium oxide nanowire network structure. Vanadium oxide nanowire pseudocapacitors with gel electrolyte exhibit excellent capacitance retention rates of more than 85% after cycling for 5000 cycles, without sacrificing the electrochemical performance of vanadium oxides.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States.
Gongming
G
Wang
Xihong
X
Lu
Yichuan
Y
Ling
Teng
T
Zhai
Hanyu
H
Wang
Yexiang
Y
Tong
Yat
Y
Li
D025802:Electric Capacitance; D004566:Electrodes; D004573:Electrolytes / Q000737:chemistry; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D018021:Lithium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D008422:Materials Testing; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000737:chemistry*; D017968:Vanadium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
D004573:Electrolytes; D005782:Gels; D017968:Vanadium Compounds; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol; C066075:vanadium pentoxide; D018021:Lithium Chloride