| Aiming to significantly improve the electrochemical properties of electroactive materials for lithium ion batteries, three novel hybrid nanostructures were developed in this thesis. These include nanostructure A: V2O 5 coated on polymer electrolyte-grafted carbon black, nanostructure B: electrode materials incorporated into an electronically conductive carbon web, and nanostructure C: electrode materials dispersed in a conductive porous carbon matrix.; Nanocomposites possessing nanostructure A are fast electronic and ionic transport materials. The improved kinetic properties are due to the incorporated carbon core and the grafted polymer electrolyte in the unique structure. The V2O5 xerogel coated polymer electrolyte-grafted carbon blacks, or V2O5/C-PEG, can reach a capacity as high as 320 mAh/g, and exhibit outstanding rate sustainability (e.g. 190 mAh/g at 14C). This class of nanostructured composites is promising for high power/current applications.; Nanostructure B was extremely successful when applied to very poorly conductive active materials, such as LiFePO4 and Li3V 2(PO4)3. In this nanostructure, the web-like carbon framework not only supplies a facile electron transport path, but also provides excellent electronic contact between carbon and the insulating active materials. At room temperature, the LiFePO4/C nanocomposite successfully reaches almost full capacity, along with greatly improved rate sustainability and excellent cycling stability. At elevated temperatures (e.g. 40°C and 60°C), the full capacity is readily accessible over a wide rate range, even at a very fast rate of 2C or 5C. The Li3V2(PO4) 3/C nanocomposite can extract all three lithium in the formula at a rate of 1C, resulting in a high capacity of 200 mAh/g. Therefore, through designing hybrid nanostructures with nanostructure B, we can make insulating active materials into good cathode materials.; Nanostructure C was employed for Sn-based anode materials, in order to improve their cycling stability by hindering the tin from aggregation, and also to reduce their capacity loss by the enhancement of electronic contact. The Sn2P2O7/C nanocomposite shows much improved stability with Q50/Q2 = 71%, compared to 27% for bulk amorphous Sn2P2O7. Furthermore, this nanostructured composite leads to much better rate capability. As the rate increases by 20 fold (from C/10 to 2C), close to 90% of the total capacity is still accessible. Similar improvement of the stability is also observed for some SnO-B 2O3-P2O5/C nanocomposites. |
