Carbon-confined Mo3Nb2O14 porous microspheres for high-performance lithium storage

In recent years, 2D intercalated pseudocapacitance MoO 3  and Nb 2 O 5  have been widely investigated, while 3D Mo-Nb–O materials have rarely been discussed. Here, we synthesized Mo 3 Nb 2 O 14 -B by a simple ball-milling method and further prepared Mo 3 Nb 2 O 14 -L with advanced energy storage properties by a solvothermal method, where the abundant nanopore channels and in situ carbon encapsulation led to fast Li-ion diffusion and excellent structural stability. It performs well in half-cell performance tests, including high reversible capacity (461 mAh g −1 at 0.1C), initial coulomb efficiency of 88.4%, excellent cycling performance (4.4% capacity loss in 600 cycles at 10 C), and significant intercalation mimetic capacitive contribution (89.2% at 1.0 mV s). All these advantages indicate that Mo 3 Nb 2 O 14 -L has great potential for use as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Graphical abstract