Performance of copper-doped V₂O₅ xerogel in coin cell assembly

Copper-doped, vanadium pentoxide xerogel is prepared through a simple sol-gel procedure, followed by heterogeneous doping and freeze-drying. Composite cathodes were formed by spray-coating a mixture of the Cu-doped material, carbon, and binder onto aluminum foils. The composite cathodes were studied in 2016 coin cells with lithium anodes and supported liquid electrolyte. The electrochemical performance of the doped material is excellent. Up to 2.2 mol of lithium per mol of doped V₂O₅ can be reversibly intercalated. The composite cathodes also showed very high intercalation rate performance and an excellent cyclability with no capacity fading over a few hundred cycles (> 450).