Advanced Niobium Pentoxide Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries Operating at Low-Temperature Conditions

Li-ion batteries are used as energy storage technology for various space missions, including earth observation, telecommunication, and science missions. Especially for the latter, a spacecraft can be exposed to very cold temperatures. Current state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries only operate well at temperatures close to room temperature, so they need to be heated when operated in a cold environment. The energetically favorable solution, to operate the batteries at colder temperatures, is currently hindered by the use of graphite anodes that show a sluggish Li intercalation at low temperatures. Herein, we propose nanosized orthorhombic Nb
2
O
5
as an alternative active material for Li-ion anodes. Our results show that this material has a relatively high capacity of more than 300 mAh g
⁻¹
and a stable cycling performance at room temperature. Furthermore, the material can be well cycled at temperatures as low as −20°C. A comparison with state-of-the-art graphite anodes shows, that niobium oxide anodes show a significantly better performance than graphite at such low temperatures.