Vanadium Carbide Based Composite for High Performance Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Lithium Ion Batteries

The fabrication of novel multifunctional nanohybrids of vanadium carbide nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is presented. The resulting composite exhibits large specific surface area and enhanced electrical conductivity, which can effectively increase the number of active sites and facilitate the charge transport. As a result, the V₈C₇/RGO electrode demonstrates comparable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activity with commercial Pt/C in terms of high electron transfer number, high current density and good durability. In particular, the onset potential of the as-prepared sample is only about 50 mV lower than that of the Pt/C catalyst. When the V₈C₇/RGO was evaluated as anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the V₈C₇/RGO nanocomposite shows a high reversible specific capacity (1^st-cycle charge capacity of 995.8 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹), a long cycling life (specific capacity of 349.6 mAh g⁻¹ after 400 cycles at 10 A g⁻¹), and an excellent rate performance (e. g. specific capacity of 277.2 mAh g⁻¹ at 10 A g⁻¹).