Scalable Fabrication of Carbon-Networked Size-Tunable V2O3 for Lithium Storage

Vanadium sesquioxide (V 2 O 3 ) is a promising electrode material for lithium-ion batteries and beyond, yet it encounters structural and cyclic instability issues. Although advances have been made with diverse material combination prototypes, the capacity or role of V 2 O 3 is complicated, limiting rational design and performance enhancement. Herein, we demonstrate a simple, scalable intercalation and annealing strategy for synthesizing carbon-knitted V 2 O 3, impressively in a V 2 O 3 size-tunable manner. While holding similar morphology, composition, and pore structure, the hybrid with ∼3 nm V 2 O 3 delivers stable cycling simultaneously with greatly improved capacity (∼450 mAh g –1 ) and initial Coulombic efficiency (∼87%) compared with its counterparts. This enhancement is verified by correlating it to the change in capacitive contribution. The study provides a smart and tailorable material model for understanding the lithium storage behavior of V 2 O 3 and opens an avenue to combinedly improve stability, capacity, and initial Coulombic efficiency of V 2 O 3 and other high-capacity intercalatable electrode materials.