Cathodic performance of V2O5 nanowires and reduced graphene oxide composites for lithium ion batteries

In this study, vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) nanowires (NWs) with a diameter of 100–200 nm and a length of up to several micrometers as cathode for lithium ion batteries are synthesize using an electrospinning method. The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and V₂O₅ NWs (GVO) composites are form by wet mixing the electrospun V₂O₅ NWs and rGO. Surface morphologies, microstructure and elemental mapping, and chemical bonding states of the composites are characterize. The initial and 60 cycles discharge capacities of GVO composite composed of 1 wt% rGO show up to 225 mAh g^?1 and 125 mAh g^?1, even higher than pure V₂O₅ NWs, when the lithium ion battery cycled between 2.0 and 4.0 V with a rate of 0.2 C, because of highly conductive rGO. The GVO composite could be promising as a high performance cathode for lithium ion batteries.