Na 3 V 2Ăx Mg x (PO 4 ) 3 /C composites with different Mg 2+ doping contents (x Âź 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07 and 0.1) were prepared by a facile sol-gel method. The doping effects on the crystal structure were investigated by XRD, XPS and EXAFS. The results show that low dose doping of Mg 2+ does not alter the structure of the material, and magnesium is successfully substituted for the vanadium site. The Mg doped Na 3 V 2Ăx Mg x (PO 4 ) 3 /C composites exhibit significant improvements on the electrochemical performance in terms of the rate capability and cycle performance, especially for the Na 3 V 1.95 Mg 0.05 (PO 4 ) 3 /C. For example, when the current density increased from 1 C to 30 C, the specific capacity only decreased from 112.5 mA h g Ă1 to 94.2 mA h g Ă1 showing very good rate capability. Moreover, even cycling at a high rate of 20 C, an excellent capacity retention of 81% is maintained from the initial value of 106.4 mA h g Ă1 to 86.2 mA h g Ă1 at the 50th cycle. Enhanced rate capability and cycle performance can be attributed to the optimized particle size, structural stability and enhanced ionic and electronic conductivity induced by Mg doping.batteries for large-scale energy storage system applications is very important. 7 Recently, sodium ion batteries have gained an increasing amount of attention due to their abundant reserves and relatively even geological distribution. 8 Actually, many electrode materials such as Na 4 Fe 3 (PO 4 ) 2 (P 2 O 7 ), 9 Na[Ni 0.25 Fe 0.5 Mn 0.25 ]O 2 / C, 10 Na[Li 0.05 (Ni 0.25 Fe 0.25 Mn 0.5 ) 0.95 ]O 2 , 11 Na x CoO 2 , 12 Na 2 C 8 H 4 O 4 , 13 Na 3 (VO 1Ăx PO 4 ) 2 F 1+2x , 14 Prussian blue analogues, 15,16 phosphorus, 17,18 and TiO 2 19 have been studied as active materials in cathodes and anodes for sodium ion batteries. However, due to the bigger ionic radius of the sodium ion than the lithium ion (1.02Ă
for Na + vs. 0.76Ă
for Li + ), its storage performance and cycle performance are much poorer than its lithium counterpart. The larger Na + radius is proved to be a crucial obstacle for Na + diffusion. 20,21 Therefore, improving Na + diffusion is quite important in developing new electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries with good electrochemical performance.NASICON-type Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 has recently been investigated as a prospective cathode material for sodium ion batteries. It is worth noting that Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 possesses the highly covalent three dimensional framework that generates large interstitial spaces through which sodium ions may diffuse easily. [22][23][24][25][26][27] In addition, the electrochemical response of the Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 electrode displays two îat plateaus at 3.4 V and 1.6 V vs. Na + /Na; the voltage plateau located at 3.4 V is relatively higher than most other cathode materials for sodium ion batteries in recent reports. 28,29 However, Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 also has an inherent deîciency. The distorted VO 6 octahedral units in the NASICON â Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: SEM images of Na 3 V 2Ăx Mg x (PO 4 ) ...