Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787

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Journal of Materiomics
journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-materiomics/

PNb9O25 nanofiber as a high-voltage anode material for advanced

lithium ions batteries
Haoxiang Yu a, b, Jundong Zhang b, Maoting Xia b, Chenchen Deng b, Xikun Zhang b,
Runtian Zheng b, Shi Chen b, Jie Shu b, c, *, Zhen-Bo Wang a, **
a
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Lab of Urban Water Resource and Environment,
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, No.92 West-Da Zhi Street, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang Province, China
b
Faculty of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, No. 818 Fenghua Road, Ningbo, 315211, Zhejiang Province, China
c
Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: If the operating voltage of anode materials is below 1.0 V versus Liþ/Li, the side reaction between
Received 11 March 2020 electrolyte and anode materials will occur extensively. Thus, high-voltage anode materials have aroused
Received in revised form interest recently. In this work, we report the preparation of PNb9O25 nanofiber via a facile electro-
18 June 2020
spinning method. The PNb9O25 nanofiber shows the high rate performance and excellent cycling per-
Accepted 2 July 2020
formance when it is used as anode in lithium ions batteries. For instance, the PNb9O25 nanofiber can
Available online 14 July 2020
deliver a capacity of 233, 212.1, 193.8, and 181.4 mA h g1 at 0.2, 1, 3, and 6C, respectively. After 1000
cycles, it can reach at 134.3 mA h g1 with capacity retention of 70.9%. Meanwhile, the ex situ X-ray
Keywords:
PNb9O25
photoelectron spectroscopy technique has been adopted to investigate the evolution in valence state of
Nanofiber each element for PNb9O25 nanofiber. In addition, the PNb9O25 nanofiber is chosen as the anode material
Electrospinning in lithium ion full cell in this work, demonstrating the potential for practical application.
Anode © 2020 The Chinese Ceramic Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access
Lithium ion batteries article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
What is high-voltage anode (HVA) material for lithium-ion
batteries (LIBs)? As Griffith and his co-workers defined in their
paper, the operating voltage of anode materials is above 1.0 V
versus Liþ/Li [1]. Traditional carbonate electrolytes are lack of
stability under about 1.0 V. Most of anode materials, such as
carbonaceous materials [2,3], alloy type materials [4], and con-
version reaction type materials [5,6], exhibiting the low operating
voltage below 1.0 V can lead to the formation of solid electrolyte
interphase (SEI) film in abundance, which affects the safety issue
of LIBs. By contrast, the HVA materials can react with lithium
metal at a voltage that SEI layer is difficult to form and electrolytes
keep stable. Thus, the problem about safety for LIBs can be avoided
mostly. Up to now, many reported electrode materials can be
considered as the HVA materials, such as TiO2 [7], Li4Ti5O12 [8],
and niobium-based materials belonging to Wadsley-Roth phases
* Corresponding author. Faculty of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Ningbo University, No. 818 Fenghua Road, Ningbo, 315211, Zhejiang Province, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: shujie@nbu.edu.cn (J. Shu), wangzhb@hit.edu.cn (Z.-B. Wang).
Peer review under responsibility of The Chinese Ceramic Society.
[9,10]. PNb9O25 is also one of members for both the HVA materials
and Wadsley-Roth phases [11,12], it provides two plateaus when
reacted electrochemically with lithium metal. Both two plateaus
are above 1.0 V [13e15]. Due to the presence of multiple redox
couples (Nb5þ/Nb4þ and Nb4þ/Nb3þ), its theoretical capacity can
reach to 380.7 mA h g1 if the redox couples of P5þ/P4þ and P4þ/
P3þ do not make a contribution. Moreover, compared with
niobium oxides, PNb9O25 is low-cost. Niobium oxides are often
expensive whereas P-containing oxides are relatively cheap.
Decreasing the amount of Nb in niobium oxides by the introduc-
tion of P can promote cost-savings. Therefore, PNb9O25 can be a
potential anode candidate for LIBs. Unfortunately, one of the dis-
advantages with using this white material is its poor electronic
conductivity [16,17]. It can offer low diffusion dynamics for
lithium ion migration, which has a negative effect on the elec-
trochemical performance of PNb9O25. Such case needs to be
conquered before its practical application.
Electrode materials with one-dimensional (1D) nanostructure
have been extensively investigated in the area of LIBs over many years
[18e21]. The major points for its attention are that these materials can
provide very large surface to contact with electrolyte and conductive
additive, shorten the pathways for the insertion/extraction of lithium
ions and own facile strain relaxation upon the electrochemical pro-
cess [19e24]. Additionally, their unique structure can prevent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmat.2020.07.003
2352-8478/© 2020 The Chinese Ceramic Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
782 H. Yu et al. / Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787
nanoparticles from serious self-aggregation compared with other
nanostructures [25]. Thus, the synthesis of materials with 1D nano-
structure is of interest to material chemists and battery researchers.
For fabricating 1D nanostructural materials, lots of approaches are
proposed and used, such as hydrothermal treatment [26], thermal
evaporation [27], template-based method [28], and electrospinning.
In these various reported methods, electrospinning is probably the
most convenient and versatile route to prepare 1D structure, and
numerous well-known electrode materials such as LiMn2O4 [18],
Li4Ti5O12 [29], and TiNb2O7 [19] have been synthesized successfully
via the electrospinning process followed by a heat treatment. Herein,
we report a facile and efficient way to prepare the PNb9O25 nanofiber
and subsequently investigate its electrochemical performance in both
half and full cell configurations. For comparison, the electrochemical
performance of bulk PNb9O25 is also shown. According to the analysis
of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) result, the evolution in
valence state of each element for PNb9O25 nanofiber is revealed.
2. Experimental section
In this work, 1D PNb9O25 nanofiber was synthesized according
to the following procedure. (COOH)2$2H2O (0.126 g), niobium(V)
ethoxide (2.862 g), and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP; 4.6 g;
Mw ¼ 1300000) were added into a mixed solvent of C2H5OH
(36 mL) and CH3COOH (6 mL). A solution containing NH4H2PO4
(0.115 g) and distilled water (10 mL) was subsequently put into the
above solution with vigorous stirring to obtain the precursor so-
lution. It was then loaded into a syringe with a 21-gauge needle
which was connected to a 15 kV applied voltage during electro-
spinning. The distance between the needle and collector is 12 cm.
The feeding rate of precursor solution is 10 mL min1. After collec-
tion, the electrospinning fiber membrane was calcined at 900  C for
10 h to obtain PNb9O25 nanofiber. For bulk PNb9O25, stoichiometric
quantities of NH4H2PO4 and Nb2O5 were fine ground and calcined
at 900  C for 15 h. Then, the sample was obtained.
The morphological features of these samples were observed by
scanning electron microscope (SEM; Hitachi SU70) and trans-
mission electron microscope (TEM; JEOL JEM2100), respectively.
The structural properties of these samples were analyzed by Bruker
D8 equipped with Cu Ka radiation. The valence state information of
these samples was recorded by XPS (PHI Quantera).
CR2016-type half cells were selected to assess the electro-
chemical performances of PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25.
Electrodes were formed by spreading a slurry of active materials,
carbon black and sodium alginate with a mass ratio of 8:1:1 onto a Cu
foil. The reason for the selection of sodium alginate as binder was
due to its natural abundance, good electrochemical stability, low
cost, and sustainability [30e32]. After dried in oven at 90  C over-
night, the electrodes were cut into discs with a diameter of 15 mm.
The loading density of active materials was 1.0e1.4 mg cm2.
Lithium foil was chosen as counter electrode and reference elec-
trode. Glass fiber from Whatman was adopted as a separator. The
assembly of the cell is in an Ar-filled glovebox. Electrolyte was 1 M
LiPF6 dissolved in ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate (1/1 by
volume). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement was performed by
applying a Bio-Logic VSP electrochemical workstation at a scan rate
of 0.1 mV s1. Galvanostatic cycling measurements were conducted
by using a LANHE Battery Measurement System.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization: Morphological and structural aspects
Both PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25 in this work are
white materials, suggesting that they are electronic insulators [17].
Fig. 1 displays XRD patterns of PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk
PNb9O25. Both patterns match well with the reported pattern of
PNb9O25 (JCPDS 81-1304), showing a tetragonal framework struc-
ture with the I4/m space group. No visible reflections from any
impurity phase can be found in either of these two patterns,
indicative of the formation of pure PNb9O25.
Fig. 2(a-b) and S1 presents the SEM images of PNb9O25 nano-
fiber. After heating at 900  C in air, polymer (PVP) which acts as the
skeleton of the as-electrospun fiber is decomposed and removed,
but the morphology of PNb9O25 nanofiber has remained, which
shows a rough surface with a uniform diameter distribution of
about 500 nm. Its morphology is also validated according to the
result from TEM as exhibited in Fig. 2c. It can be viewed that the
PNb9O25 nanofiber is built by numerous inter-connected nano-
crystals with size around 100 nm. Since these nanocrystals have
tightly connected with each other, forming the nanofiber, the self-
aggregation of nanocrystals is suppressed obviously. This structure
shall also be favorable for lithium ion storage since it can provide
three advantages: efficient 1D electron transport along the longi-
tudinal direction, good connectivity with electronic and ionic
sources, and short diffusion distance owing to the nanoscale di-
mensions [19]. Detailed microstructure of the PNb9O25 nanofiber is
revealed by the high-resolution TEM image as displayed in Fig. 2d.
The PNb9O25 nanocrystal is well-crystallized and its lattice fringe
with a regular interplanar spacing of 0.35 nm can be observed
clearly, assigned to the (240) plane of PNb9O25. The selected area
electron diffraction (SAED) pattern (Fig. 2e) of a PNb9O25 nano-
crystal confirms its tetragonal structure with the I4/m space group,
corroborating the result obtained from the XRD pattern. In contrast,
bulk PNb9O25 shown in Fig. 2f and S2 is micron-sized blocks.
3.2. Half-cell performance
The electrochemical performance of PNb9O25 nanofiber is evalu-
ated by CV test and galvanostatic cycling. Fig. 3a presents the initial
three CV curves of PNb9O25 nanofiber at 0.1 mV s1. During the
cathodic and anodic sweeps, two pairs of well-defined redox peaks at
1.65/1.77 and 1.11/1.27 V are observed, revealing the reversibility of
PNb9O25 nanofiber. The main peaks at 1.65/1.77 V are attributed to the
Nb5þ/Nb4þ redox reaction, whereas the other peaks at 1.11/1.27 V
correspond to the conversion of Nb4þ/Nb3þ [19]. All of these redox
reactions occur at above 1.0 V, suggesting that this material is the HVA
material. Note that less variation in area is found within the CV curves
except for the first cycle, indicating the good cycling stability. Fig. 3b-c
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25.
 H. Yu et al. / Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787 783

Fig. 2. (aeb) SEM images, (c) TEM image, (d) high-resolution TEM image, (e) SAED pattern of PNb9O25 nanofiber. (f) SEM image of bulk PNb9O25.

Fig. 3. (a) CV traces of PNb9O25 nanofiber at 0.1 mV s1. (b) Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves of PNb9O25 nanofiber at various current rates. (c) Rate performances of PNb9O25
nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25. (d) Cycling performance of PNb9O25 nanofiber at 6C.

shows the galvanostatic charge-discharge profiles of PNb9O25 nano-
fiber at various current rates and the corresponding rate performance.
Two working voltage plateaus of about 1.7 and 1.1 V are in agreement
with the result obtained from CV test. At a low current rate (0.2C), the
PNb9O25 nanofiber delivers the capacities of 260.4 and 233 mA h g1
for discharging and charging, respectively, which means that 12.3/
11.0 lithium ions per formula unit can be inserted/extracted into/from
the structure of PNb9O25. If all nine of the Nb5þ ions are reduced to the
Nb4þ ions, the PNb9O25 nanofiber only provides the capacity of
190.3 mA h g1. Thus, a few of the Nb4þ ions have to be reduced to the
784 H. Yu et al. / Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787
Nb3þ ions [16]. As the current rate gradually increases to 1, 3, and 6C
with ten cycles keeping, the corresponding charge capacities can
reach at 212.1, 193.8, and 181.4 mA h g1. When the current rate de-
creases to low rate of 0.2C, the charge capacity can keep at 220.4 mA h
g1. In contrast, the charge capacities for bulk PNb9O25 are only 215.3,
188.9,167.5,155.1, and 203.4 mA h g1 at the current rates of 0.2,1, 3, 6,
and 0.2C, respectively. Obviously, the PNb9O25 nanofiber demon-
strates a good rate performance, proving that the 1D nanostructure
has a positive effect on its electrochemical performance. Its rate per-
formance is also found to be better compared with those of Nb2O5 or
other Nb-containing oxides (Table S1) [33e40]. Besides, the PNb9O25
nanofiber also exhibits the stable cycling property. Fig. 3d depicts the
cycling performance of PNb9O25 nanofiber at 6C. It presents excellent
reversibility during cycling with small capacity loss. After 500 cycles,
its reversible specific capacity can maintain at 134.3 mA h g1 with
70.9% of its initial capacity, suggesting the good cyclability of PNb9O25
nanofiber.
To investigate the electronic and ionic conductivities of PNb9O25
nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25, they are evaluated by electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the results are displayed in
Fig. 4a. Both curves are made of a semicircle and a line. The semi-
circle is related to charge transfer resistance (Rct), the line is
ascribed to the Warburg impedance of lithium ions diffusion (Wo)
and the high frequency intercept at the real axis represents the
ohmic resistance of the cell mainly from the electrolyte (Rs) [41]. It
can be approximated by an electrical circuit depicted in the inset of
Fig. 4a. Besides Rs, Rct, and Wo, CPE is the constant phase-angle
element including double layer capacitance. The fitted data are
presented in Fig. 4b. The values of Rs and Rct for PNb9O25 nanofiber
are lower than that of bulk PNb9O25, suggesting that the electronic
and ionic conductivities of PNb9O25 nanofiber is better than that of
bulk PNb9O25. It also indicates that decreasing the particle size has a
positive effect on the electrochemical performance of PNb9O25,
corroborating previous observations [42].
3.3. Surface evolution upon cycling
The lithiation-delithiation processes of PNb9O25 nanofiber
electrode must be accompanied with its redox reactions, which can
be validated by the ex situ XPS results as shown in Fig. 5. Before the
lithiation of PNb9O25 nanofiber electrode, the binding energies of
Nb 3d and P 2p are 207.44 and 133.57 eV, respectively, which are
much closer to the reported data from Nb2O5 and phosphate [43].
When the electrode has been discharged to 1.0 V, an obvious
Fig. 4. (a) Nyquist plots of PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25 prior to cycling. (b) The fitting data from EIS curves of PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25.
transformation occurs in the binding energies for both Nb 3d and P
2p. Typically, the characteristic peak of Nb 3d has shifted to the
lower binding energy of 206.89 eV with the reduction in intensity,
suggesting a change in the oxidation state of Nb element from
pentavalence to tetravalence. In fact, trivalent Nb should also have
been detected during lithiation because the reversible capacity of
PNb9O25 nanofiber is 233 mA h g1 (z11.0 mol of Liþ). Yet only
tetravalent Nb can be found. One possible reason is that trivalent
Nb is unstable and easy to be oxidized. For P 2p, its binding energy
vanishes at 133.57 eV and appears at 136.84 eV, which is indexed
according to the binding energy of hexafluorophosphate [43]. After
recharged to 3.0 V, the binding energy of Nb 3d almost recovers to
the original value (207.36 eV), indicating that the change in valence
state of Nb is reversible. However, both two peaks located at 133.69
and 136.71 eV appear in P 2p spectrum, and each peak appears once
before and upon lithiation. These two peaks can be related to
phosphate and hexafluorophosphate, respectively. Accordingly, we
consider that P element in PNb9O25 nanofiber does not contribute
to the electrochemical capacity and a little SEI film (the binding
energy located at 136.71 eV can be related to it) can form during
cycling. The Li 1s spectrum shown in Fig. 5c also validates the
presence of SEI film. Therefore, our experiment confirms the elec-
trochemical reactivity of PNb9O25 nanofiber is due to the change in
valence state of Nb.
The surface evolution of the PNb9O25 nanofiber after continuous
discharge/charge cycles has been investigated by SEM and the re-
sults are shown in Fig. S3. Prior to discharging, nothing but carbon
black can be found around the surface of PNb9O25 nanofibers.
When the electrode is tested to 10 cycles, the surface of PNb9O25
nanofibers is covered by an ultrathin SEI film, this film shall be due
to the initial Coulombic efficiency which is less than 90%. After 50
cycles, no obvious evidences show that the film is thickening,
which proves that the Coulombic efficiency of PNb9O25 nanofiber
can maintain at above 95% except for the initial cycle.
3.4. Possibility of application
Based on its high rate capacities and stable cyclability in half cell,
the PNb9O25 nanofiber HVA material is expected to exhibit good
performance in full cells. Fig. 6a exhibits the typical charge-
discharge profiles of LiCoO2/Li half cell and LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nano-
fiber full cell at 0.3C. Obviously, the LiCoO2/Li half cell cycled be-
tween 3.6 and 4.35 V delivers a reversible capacity of 121.3 mA h
g1 with an operating voltage around 3.9 V. When selected as
 H. Yu et al. / Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787 785

Fig. 5. High-resolution XPS spectra of (a) Nb 3d, (b) P 2p, and (c) Li 1s for PNb9O25 nanofiber at different state during cycling.

Fig. 6. (a) Galvanostatic charge-discharge curves of a LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber cell and a LiCoO2/Li cell at a current rate of 0.3C. (b) Differential dQ/dV plot of galvanostatic charge-
discharge curve for LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber cell shown in (a). (c) Cycling performance of the LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber cell at 0.3C between 1.4 and 3.2 V.

cathode in full cell assembly, it is the only available source of
lithium ions, so that the mass ratio of cathode to anode has to be
balanced, which is fixed at 1:1.9 on the basis of the results
mentioned above. The selection of the operation voltage window
for the LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber full cell is according to a previous
literature [44]. Typically, in the Li/LiCoO2 half cell, its voltage win-
dow refers to the potential of lithium metal. When lithium metal is
replaced by PNb9O25 nanofiber, the charge cutoff voltage should
refer to the discharge plateau of Li/PNb9O25 nanofiber half cell. It
should be noted that we choose the discharge plateau which is
close to the discharge cutoff voltage of Li/PNb9O25 nanofiber half
cell. Similarly, the discharge cutoff voltage can be acquired in this
way. Given that the polarization of anode material is obvious in the
first cycle, the voltage window of the LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber full
cell is selected between 1.4 and 3.2 V. The LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nano-
fiber full cell provides capacities of 126.0 and 117.2 mA h g1 for
charging and discharging, respectively, as cycled in a voltage range
of 1.4e3.2 V. Given the operating voltages of LiCoO2/Li half cell and
PNb9O25 nanofiber/Li half cell, this full cell shows the working
voltage around 2.2 V and its differential dQ/dV plot depicted in
Fig. 6b confirms this result. It is interesting that the profile of this
differential dQ/dV plot is similar to the CV curves of PNb9O25
nanofiber, indicative of the good matching between LiCoO2 and
PNb9O25 nanofiber. In addition, the LiCoO2/PNb9O25 nanofiber full
cell can retain a reversible capacity of 102.1 mA h g1 after 10 cycles
(Fig. 6c). The performance of this full cell manifests PNb9O25
nanofiber has potential for practical applications.
4. Conclusions
In summary, the HVA material, PNb9O25 nanofiber, is prepared
successfully via a facile electrospinning method with an annealing
process. The SEM and TEM images show that the PNb9O25 nanofiber is
built by plenty of inter-connected nanocrystals. Benefiting from its
unique morphological features, the PNb9O25 nanofiber exhibits the
high rate capacities and good cyclability when selected as anode for
LIBs. It delivers the capacities of 233, 212.1, 193.8, 181.4, and
220.4 mA h g1 at the current rates of 0.2,1, 3, 6, and 0.2C, respectively.
786 H. Yu et al. / Journal of Materiomics 6 (2020) 781e787
For cycling performance, the reversible capacity can reach at
134.3 mA h g1 with 70.9% of its initial capacity after 500 cycles. Based
on the analysis of XPS, the change in valence state of Nb during cycling
can be considered as the only source for the electrochemical capacity.
Additionally, we have constructed the full cell by selecting LiCoO2 as
cathode. The full cell delivers a discharge capacity of 117.2 mA h g1
with the working voltage around 2.2 V, suggesting the potential for
practical application. All the results demonstrate that the PNb9O25
nanofiber can be a promising anode candidate for LIBs.
Supporting Information
The schematic illustrates low-magnification SEM for the
PNb9O25 nanofiber and bulk PNb9O25, table for the comparison
between this work and previous reported data. SEM images of
PNb9O25 nanofiber upon different cycles.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Haoxiang Yu: Writing - original draft, Data curation, Formal
analysis, Project administration. Jundong Zhang: Data curation,
Formal analysis, Methodology. Maoting Xia: Investigation, Writing -
review & editing. Chenchen Deng: Data curation, Formal analysis.
Xikun Zhang: Investigation, Writing - review & editing. Runtian
Zheng: Writing - review & editing. Shi Chen: Writing - review &
editing. Jie Shu: Supervision, Funding acquisition. Zhen-Bo Wang:
Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work is sponsored by NSAF joint Fund (U1830106), National
Natural Science Foundation of China (U1632114, 21673064), and
K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmat.2020.07.003.
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nanowebs as high-performance anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. ACS Xikun Zhang has graduated from Fuyang Normal Uni-
Appl. Nano Mater. 2017;1:183e90. versity in 2017 and he is currently a Master candidate at
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new anode material for high-capacity, safe, rapid and durable Liþ storage: oxides and sulfides for electrochemical energy storage
structural characteristics, electrochemical properties and working mecha- devices.
nisms. J Mater Chem A 2019;7:6522e32.
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[43] Moulder JF, Strickle WF, Sobol PE, Bomben KD. Handbook of X-ray photo- Runtian Zheng received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from
electron spectroscopy, physical electronics, inc. Minnesota: United States of Xinyang Normal University in 2017 and he is now pursuing
America; 1995. her M.S. degree at Ningbo university. His current research
[44] Han J, Goodenough J. 3-V full cell performance of anode framework TiNb2O7/ focuses on the design and synthesis of nanomaterials, and
spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4. Chem Mater 2011;23:3404e7. investigation of their fundamental properties and appli-
cations in energy storage devices.

Haoxiang Yu received his M.S. degree in Physical Chem-

istry from Ningbo University and he is now pursuing his
Ph.D degree. He has published 23 papers in peer-reviewing
journals including Nano Energy, ACS Applied Materials &
Interfaces, and Journal of Power Sources. His current
research focuses on advanced materials for energy conver-
sion and storage.
Shi Chen is now pursuing his M.S. degree at Ningbo uni-
versity. His current research focuses on the design and
synthesis of nanomaterials, and investigation of their
fundamental properties and applications in energy storage
devices.

Jundong Zhang received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from

Nanchang Hangkong University in 2017. He is currently a
Master candidate at Ningbo University. He is interested in
preparing metal chalcogenides for energy storage.

Jie Shu is currently a full professor at Ningbo University.

Maoting Xia has graduated from Quzhou University in
2018. She is currently a Master candidate at Ningbo Uni-
versity. Her current research focuses on nanomaterials for
rechargeable batteries.
He received his Ph.D degree from Institute of Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007. He ever worked as a
postdoctoral researcher at National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology (Japan), Universite de
Picardie Jules Verne and Centre national de la recherche 
scientifique (France). He has published more than 200
papers, 2 book chapters, and 30 patents about energy
storage materials.

Zhen-Bo Wang has obtained B.S., M.S and PhD degrees

Chenchen Deng is now pursuing her B.S. degree at Ningbo
university. Her current research focuses on the design and
synthesis of nanomaterials, and investigation of their
fundamental properties and applications in energy storage
devices.
from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1998, 2003 and
2006 respectively. He completed a post-doctoral stint at
the University of Puerto Rico in the US from 2006 to
2007. He is now a full professor in the School of Chemistry
and Chemical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technol-
ogy and doctoral student advisor. He is researcher in the
Heilongjiang Province Industrial Technology Research
Centre. Research interests lie in chemical power sources,
electrocatalysis and nanoelectrode materials.