ORIGINAL PAPER Synthesis, structural, and electrochemical performance of V 2 O 5 nanotubes as cathode material for lithium battery V. M. Mohan Bin Hu Weiliang Qiu Wen Chen Received: 8 December 2008 / Accepted: 14 April 2009 / Published online: 29 April 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract Various vanadium oxide nanostructures are currently drawn interest for the potential applications of Li batteries, super capacitors, and electrochromic display devices. In this article, the synthesis of V 2 O 5 nanotubes by hydrothermal method using 1-hexadecylamine (HDA) and PEO as a template and surface reactant were reported, respectively. The structural properties and electrochemical performances of these nanostructures were investigated for the application of Li batteries. Structure and morphology of the samples were investigated by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and TEM analysis. The battery with V 2 O 5 nanotubes electrode showed initial specific capacity of 185 mAhg -1 , whereas the PEO surfactant V 2 O 5 nanotubes exhibited 142 mAhg -1 . It was found that PEO surfactant V 2 O 5 nanotubes material showed less specific capacity at initial stages but better stability was exhibited at higher cycle numbers when compared to that of V 2 O 5 nanotubes. The cyclic perfor- mance of the PEO surfactant material seems to be improved with the role of polymeric component due to its surface reaction with V 2 O 5 nanotubes during the hydrothermal process. Keywords V 2 O 5 nanotube  Poly(ethylene oxide)  Cathode  Electrochemical performance  Li battery 1 Introduction The synthesis of nanosized materials with specific geometry and morphology is a key aspect in various fields such as modern materials [1, 2], biotechnology [3, 4], catalysis [5, 6], electronics [7, 8], and power sources [9, 10]. Particu- larly, the higher order nanostructures with well defined geometries like nanotubes, nanowires, nanofibers, and nanorods have attracted much attention now a days because of their importance in both fundamental as well as engi- neering science and potential applications in various nan- odevices [11–14]. Vanadium oxides have been extensively investigated as possible cathode materials for lithium batteries. Vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ) belongs to the transition metal oxides family and is often employed in secondary lithium batteries to improve the specific capacity, voltage (versus the anode material), reversibility, and stability. Previous studies indicated that the diffusion coefficient of Li ? in crystalline V 2 O 5 is inherently low, i.e., D i * 10 -12 cm 2 s -1 [15, 16]. Considering this fact, many researchers concluded that the capacity of lithium inter- calation at high discharge rates can be improved by con- trolling the size and shape of the individual particles and the morphology of the V 2 O 5 electrode material. Various nanostructures of V 2 O 5 were already synthesized by a variety of methods and galvanostatic discharge experi- ments shows that nanostructure electrodes delivered higher capacities than thin film electrodes [17–21]. However, there is another problem which can be solved related to the structural changes. Crystalline V 2 O 5 under- goes structural modification during deep charge–discharge cycles induced by mechanical stress leading to a decrease in the specific V 2 O 5 properties such as energy density or charge capacity. These structural modifications generated V. M. Mohan  B. Hu  W. Qiu  W. Chen (&) State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, 430070 Wuhan, People’s Republic of China e-mail: chenw@whut.edu.cn 123 J Appl Electrochem (2009) 39:2001–2006 DOI 10.1007/s10800-009-9910-6