Nano-sheet and nano-laminar vanadium nitride as anodes for high-performance lithium-ions storage

Transition metal nitrides involving vanadium nitrides (VN) hold great prospects for alkaline metal batteries. Regrettably, the absence of environmentally friendly synthesis techniques restricts its practical applications. In this work, a rational design of nano-sheet and nano-laminar VN was reported via a facile urea nitrogenization technique. Nano-laminar VN exhibits superior electrochemical performances to nano-sheet VN as an anode for lithium-ion batteries with a discharge capacity of 381.7 mAh g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) after 400 cycles and 738.7 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1) after 200 cycles without capacity attenuation. Furthermore, Li-ions storage mechanisms of nano-sheet and nano-laminar VN are pseudocapacitive accompanied by conversion reaction and intercalation pseudocapacitive, respectively.