Modified sol–gel synthesis of nanosized LiVPO4F/C cathode material with mechanical blending assist

Abstract Nanosized LiVPO 4 F/C cathode material is synthesized by heating the precursor obtained through a sol–gel method with mechanical blending assist. XRD and SEM results indicate that LiVPO 4 F/C composite is pure phase, possesses good crystallinity and uniform particle size distribution. The average size of LiVPO 4 F/C is about 40 nm. In the range of 3.0–4.6 V, the LiVPO 4 F/C electrode presents excellent cyclic performance. At 0.1 C rate, it delivers initial discharge capacity of about 138.3 mAh g −1 and maintains 135.7 mAh g −1 after 50 cycles. Even carried out at 55 °C, this composite displays discharge capacities of 119.3 mAh g −1 at the rate of 0.5 C and 104.1 mAh g −1 at the rate of 1 C, and maintains about 115.5 and 97.4 mAh g −1 after 30 cycles, respectively.