Fractal granular BiVO₄ microspheres as high performance anode material for Li-ion battery

Abstract

A fractal architecture where self-grown nanoparticles aggregates together to form a larger microstructures with high surface area and improved surface to volume ratio is promising approach to engineer high performance battery materials. Herein, we have engineered BiVO₄ micro-spheres with fractal granularity using cost-effective surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method. The fractal architecture of BiVO₄ is composed of nanoparticles of sizes in the range of 20–40 nm and grown into large micro-spheres of around 1–2 μm. The unique design of BiVO4 micro-spheres offers high reversible capacity of 590 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g and delivers excellent cycling stability of around 96% over 200 cycles. Thus, we have provided an innovative approach to design fractal granular micro-nanostructures for the development of high performance battery materials.