Stabilized electrode phase by prelithiating V2O5 cathode materials for high-specific energy thermal batteries

Vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ) is an attractive high-energy cathode material for thermal batteries but is limited by the high solubility and tendency to react with halogenic molten salt. Li x V 2 O 5 (0 < x ≤ 1) are expected to take the place of V 2 O 5 as the promising cathode materials in thermal batteries. In this work, Li x V 2 O 5 were successfully synthesized by the high-efficiency and low-cost method, which uses the molten salt as lithium source and through a brief-time sintered process (900 °C for 15 s). Li x V 2 O 5 /molten salt electrode with CNTs conductive agent exhibits an original discharge voltage with 2.51 V and a specific capacity up to 309.46 mA h g −1 . The high chemical stabilization between Li x V 2 O 5 and molten salt which could increase interfacial structure stabilization and improve the transmission rate of Li + . Besides, CNTs could build the continuous electron transport channels in active cathode inter-particles and improve the utilization rate of Li x V 2 O 5 . This paper not only prepares the Li x V 2 O 5 cathode materials with high specific capacity via a simple method, but also provides insights into the phase evolution process of V 2 O 5 based cathode electrodes during discharge process of thermal batteries.