Electrochemical studies of hexavanadates and lithium manganese oxides for aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries

Aqueous rechargeable lithium ion battery (ARLB) systems are potential alternative to existing rechargeable battery systems like Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, lead acid and lithium ion battery due to its advantages including rate capabilities, safety and environmental friendliness. Investigations of high energy/power, long cycle life and low-cost materials for aqueous rechargeable lithium ion batteries are of great interest especially for transportation applications such as electric (EVs) or hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs), large-scale power storage grids and wearable electronics. ARLBs have higher power density but lower energy densities compared to lithium polymer batteries. ARLBs have much better rate capabilities (10-5000mAg-1) compared to lithium ion batteries (0.1-10mAg-1). This thesis focuses on the development and study of novel hexavanadate-based anode and lithium manganese oxide based cathode materials for ARLBs with higher energy densities and better cycle life performances at higher rates. In this thesis, new set of hexavanadate-based materials with high theoretical capacities like Li3V6O16, Na2V6O16, K2V6O16, CaV6O16 and SrV6O16from the family of metal vanadium oxides (Mx+2/x V6O16;x = valency of alkali metal ion) for aqueous rechargeable lithium ion battery were synthesized by both facile hydrothermal and sol-gel method using Vanadium Oxide (V2O5) and hydroxide salt of the alkali metal ion LiOH, NaOH, KOH, Ca(OH)2 and Sr(OH)2. [Continues.]