Designing Molybdenum Trioxide and Hard Carbon Architecture for Stable Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

Molybdenum Trioxide (MoO₃) is a promising candidate as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIB), with a theoretical capacity of 1 117 mAhg⁻¹. Nevertheless, MoO₃ has inherent lower electronic conductivity and suffers from significant volume expansion during the charge–discharge cycle, which hinders its ability to attain a substantial capacity and cyclability for practical applications. In this study, a novel material design strategy is reported for LIB anodes containing MoO₃ and hard carbon (HC) architecture fabricated using a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) technique. MoO₃/HC as anode materials are evaluated for LIBs, which demonstrate an exceptional performance with a capacity of 953 mAhg⁻¹ at a discharging rate of 0.2 C. Additionally, MoO₃/HC anode demonstrated exceptional rate capability during fast charging at 5 C and achieved a capacity of 342 mAhg⁻¹. The MoO₃/HC anode demonstrates remarkable cycle life, retaining over > 99% Coulombic efficiency after 3 000 cycles at a rate of 0.2 C. The exceptional performance of MoO₃/HC anode can be attributed to the novel material design strategy based on a multi-layered structure where HC provides a barrier against the possible volumetric expansion of LIB anode.