Al2O3-Doped MoO3-TeO2 Glass as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries with Long-Term Cycle Life

Glass materials have found various applications owing to their low cost, free of grain boundaries and open topological network to accommodate various active species. We have fabricated a ternary glass of Al2O3-MoO3-TeO2 (AlMoTe) and investigated potential applications in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). we have found that the incorporation of a certain amount of Al2O3 into 40TeO2-60MoO3 (MT-60) glass can lead to a significant enhancement in the cycling performance and specific capacity of LIBs. Specifically, when used as anode for LIBs, the capacity of MT-60 reached 112.5 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 A g−1. In contrast, the capacity can be increased up to 253.9 mAh g−1 at the same current density when 7 mol% Al2O3 was doped in the MT glass (AlMoTe-7). Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to analyze the changes in the glass network upon the incorporation of Al2O3. Based on the structural analyses, we believe that the Al2O3 doping significantly influenced the activity of Mo that participated in the redox reaction, consequently increasing the Li+ ions diffusion coefficient and electron conductivity. Furthermore, the Li+ ions storage mechanism of LIBs based on TeO2-MoO3 glasses was investigated by examining the pseudocapacitive properties of the batteries. Our work suggests that inorganic glass materials could play an important role in LIBs anode materials upon appropriate structural design.