Paper Abstract

Molybdenum Trioxide (MoO3) is a promising candidate as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIB), with a theoretical capacity of 1 117 mAhg−1. Nevertheless, MoO3 has inherent lower electronic conductivity and suffers from significant volume expansion during the charge–discharge cycle, which hinders its ability to attain a substantial capacity and cyclability for practical applications. In this study, a novel material design strategy is reported for LIB anodes containing MoO3 and hard carbon (HC) architecture fabricated using a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) technique. MoO3/HC as anode materials are evaluated for LIBs, which demonstrate an exceptional performance with a capacity of 953 mAhg−1 at a discharging rate of 0.2 C. Additionally, MoO3/HC anode demonstrated exceptional rate capability during fast charging at 5 C and achieved a capacity of 342 mAhg−1. The MoO3/HC anode demonstrates remarkable cycle life, retaining over > 99% Coulombic efficiency after 3 000 cycles at a rate of 0.2 C. The exceptional performance of MoO3/HC anode can be attributed to the novel material design strategy based on a multi-layered structure where HC provides a barrier against the possible volumetric expansion of LIB anode.

How Moorfield products helped:

Our benchtop nanoPVD-S10A-WA thin film deposition system was used to deposit MoO3 and HC by magnetron sputtering on a commercially available carbon-coated copper substrate outsourced from MTI and laboratory glass slides.

Open Access publication details:

Shahzad, R.F. et al. (no date) ‘Designing Molybdenum Trioxide and Hard Carbon Architecture for Stable Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes’, Advanced Materials Interfaces, n/a(n/a), p. 2400258. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202400258.