Niobium-Based High Rate Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries: From Materials Design to Electrochemical Origins

This thesis contains two parts, namely (1) the structural design of niobium-based oxides for fast-charging battery applications and (2) the investigation of different influences ranging from the intrinsic material properties to the diffusion behavior of the lithium-ions into these niobium-based materials. The first part includes the investigation on three novel niobium based fast charging electrode materials, niobium tungsten oxide, nickel niobium oxide, niobium tungsten oxide 2D glass micro-electrode on conductive substrate. The second part contains a new theoretical framework for decoupling the influences of ohmic resistance, reaction rate, and ion diffusion to the fast-charging properties of the electrode materials. And this model was used to study the electrochemical origins of the fast charging performance of the niobium-based electrode materials.