LiVOPO₄ Hollow Microspheres: One-Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis with Reactants as Self-Sacrifice Templates and Lithium Intercalation Performances

Self-produced template (usually bubbles and carbon particles) methods have been adopted to obtain micrometer- and nanometer-scaled hollow spheres. In this paper, we report the preparation of α-LiVOPO4 hollow spheres through a hydrothermal reaction of LiOH·H2O, V2O5, H3PO4, and N2H4·H2O at 250 °C for 48 h. During this procedure the reactant, V2O5 particles, served as the template and was consumed without any residues when the hydrothermal reaction was completed. Therefore, such a self-sacrifice template method makes large-scale production of α-LiVOPO4 hollow spheres feasible. α-LiVOPO4 hollow spheres were exploited as both cathode and anode materials for lithium ion batteries.