Facile synthesis of vanadium pentoxide[at]carbon core-shell nanowires for high-performance supercapacitors

Vanadium pentoxide is emerging as a low-cost and high-performance pseudo-capacitive electrode material but suffers from poor stability. Herein, we demonstrate that the electrochemical performance and stability of V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires can be significantly improved by coating a thin carbon layer as shell. Our study shows that the V sub(2)O sub(5)[at]C core shell nanowires achieve a remarkable areal capacitance of 128.5 F cm super(-2) at 10 mV s super(-1) with excellent rate capability. More than 94.4% of the initial capacitance is retained after 10,000 cycles for V sub(2)O sub(5)[at]C core shell nanowires, which is much higher than the pristine V sub(2)O sub(5) nanowires (13.3%). This method could be extended to improve the stability and electrochemical properties of other electrode materials.