V6O13 emerges as a highly promising cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs), owing to its unique bilayer topology that offers abundant Zn2+ storage sites and metal-like electronic conductivity. Nevertheless, the electrochemical performance of pristine V6O13 is severely hampered by its intrinsic weak van der Waals interactions, narrow interlayer spacing, and prone-to-agglomeration morphology, leading to slow Zn2+ diffusion and poor structural resilience. Herein, we develop a dual-modulation strategy involving CTAB modification and rare-earth Y3+ preintercalation for the construction of high-performance Y-CTAB-VO-2 nanobelts to address these limitations. The introduction of CTAB not only promotes the formation of high-aspect-ratio nanobelts with improved dispersion and minimized aggregation but also increases the electrochemically active surface area. Concurrently, Y3+ intercalation effectively expands the interlayer spacing, facilitating rapid Zn2+ diffusion and reinforcing structural integrity. Benefiting from these synergistic modifications, the optimized Y-CTAB-VO-2 cathode delivers exceptionally high reversible capacity (530 mAh g–1 at 0.1 A g–1), outstanding rate performance (340 mAh g–1 at 10 A g–1), and remarkable cycling stability (retaining 85.1% of its capacity after 2,500 cycles at 5 A g–1), surpassing most reported vanadium-based AZIB cathodes. This work provides new insights into designing advanced layered vanadium oxide cathodes for high-performance AZIBs.
Luo et al. (Mon,) studied this question.