Hierarchical Carbon@SnS2 Aerogel with "Skeleton/Skin" Architectures as a High-Capacity, High-Rate Capability and Long Cycle Life Anode for Sodium Ion Storage

Zhiyuan Yang; Peng Zhang; Jian Wang; Yan Yan; Yang Yu; Qinghong Wang; Mingkai Liu

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b14861

Hierarchical Carbon@SnS₂ Aerogel with "Skeleton/Skin" Architectures as a High-Capacity, High-Rate Capability and Long Cycle Life Anode for Sodium Ion Storage

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Oct 31;10(43):37434-37444. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b14861. Epub 2018 Oct 22.

Authors

Zhiyuan Yang¹, Peng Zhang¹, Jian Wang¹, Yan Yan¹, Yang Yu¹, Qinghong Wang¹, Mingkai Liu¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemistry & Materials Science, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Green Synthetic Chemistry for Functional Materials , Jiangsu Normal University , Xuzhou 221116 , China.

PMID: 30346691
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b14861

Abstract

Developing high-performance electrode materials with high energy and long-term cycling stability is a hot topic and of great importance for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). In this work, a highly porous carbon/tin sulfide aerogel with a "skeleton/skin" morphology (SSC@SnS₂) has been developed and further used as a binder-free anode for SIBs. This SSC@SnS₂ electrode delivers a high specific capacity of 612 mA h g^-1 at 0.1 A g^-1, a good rate capability, and a long-term cycling stability up to 1000 times with an average Coulombic efficiency of ∼99.9%. Meanwhile, this SSC@SnS₂ aerogel also achieves a stable cycling performance even at a high current density up to 5.0 A g^-1. The fast-yet-stable sodium ion storage performance of the prepared SSC@SnS₂ aerogel can be ascribed to the reasons that (i) the carbon nanofiber/graphene skeleton provides unimpeded pathways for the rapid transfer of electrons; (ii) thin SnS₂ skin with nonaggregated morphology can provide a great number of active sites for sodium ion storage; (iii) the porous structure of the SSC@SnS₂ aerogel ensures a rapid penetration of electrolyte and can further accommodate the volume expansion of active SnS₂ nanoflakes; and (iv) the intermediate product of Na₁₅Sn₄ alloy contributes greatly to the sodium ion storage performance of the SSC@SnS₂ aerogel. The excellent electrochemical performances coupling with the unique structural features of this SSC@SnS₂ aerogel make it a promising anode candidate for SIBs.

Keywords: SnS2 nanoflakes; carbon nanofiber/graphene matrix; outstanding electrochemical performances; skeleton/skin morphology; sodium ion batteries.