Spherical vanadium phosphate particles grown on carbon fiber cloth as flexible anode for high-rate Li-ion batteries

[Display omitted] •Spherical VPO4 particles grown on carbon fiber cloth are prepared.•The composite is directly used as flexible binder-free anode for LIBs.•The electrode exhibits high performance against mechanical bending. Spherical vanadium phosphate (VPO4) particles grown on flexible electron-conductive carbon fiber cloth (CFC) is developed as a binder-free anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The flexible composite electrode (VP@CFC) exhibits an excellent performance, including high reversible lithium-ion storage capacity (541.2 mAh g−1 at 0.1C), high rate capability (350.2 mAh g−1 at 10C), and good cycling stability (a capacity retention ratio of 91.8% after 250 cycles at 1C). Moreover, a flexible full cell fabricated with the VP@CFC as anode and a commercial LiCoO2 (LCO) coated on CFC (LCO@CFC) as cathode displays good flexibility against mechanical bending at a wide range of angle while maintaining its good electrochemical performance. The flexible VP@CFC electrode holds a great promise in applications for flexible energy storage devices.