Facile Tailoring of Multidimensional Nanostructured Sb for Sodium Storage Applications

Abstract

Nanoengineering of metal electrodes are of great importance for improving the energy density of alkali-ion batteries, which have been deemed one of most effective tools for addressing the poor cycle stability of metallic anodes. However, the practical application of nanostructured electrodes in batteries is still challenged by a lack of efficient, low-cost, and scalable preparation methods. Herein, we propose a facile chemical dealloying approach to the tunable preparation of multidimensional Sb nanostructures. Depending on dealloying reaction kinetics regulated by different solvents, zero-dimensional Sb nanoparticles (Sb-NP), two-dimensional Sb nanosheets (Sb-NS), and three-dimensional nanoporous Sb are controllably prepared via etching Li−Sb alloys in H 2 O, H 2 O-EtOH, and EtOH, respectively. Morphological evolution mechanisms of the various Sb nanostructures are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction measurements. When applied as anodes for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), the as-prepared Sb-NS electrodes without any chemical modifications exhibit high reversible capacity of 620 mAh g −1 and retain 90.2% of capacity after 100 cycles at 100 mA g −1 . The excellent Na + storage performance observed is attributable to the twodimensional nanostructure, which ensures high degrees of Na + accessibility, robust structural integrity, and rapid electrode transport. This facile and tunable approach can broaden ways of developing high performance metal electrodes with designed nanostructures for electrochemical energy storage and conversion applications.

High‐Performance Manganese Hexacyanoferrate with Cubic Structure as Superior Cathode Material for Sodium‐Ion Batteries

“…However, the larger ionic radius and sluggish kinetics of Na raise difficulties for the construction of SIBs with high energy/power densities and long lifespan. Therefore, it is paramount to exploit advanced host materials with a large framework with abundant ion channels …”

Rational Design of Sb@C@TiO2 Triple‐Shell Nanoboxes for High‐Performance Sodium‐Ion Batteries

“…To address these issues, many strategies have been proposed, such as designing new nanostructures (e.g., Sb nanotubes, [39] antimonene, [40,41] and nanoporous Sb [42][43][44] ), forming Sb-based intermetallics (e.g., SbSn, [45][46][47][48] SbNi, [49,50] and SbBi [51,52] ) and constructing protective layers (e.g., TiO 2 , [53][54][55] Co(OH) 2 , [56] and carbon [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69] ). Among these approaches, constructing a protective layer has been regarded as the most effective way to solve the volume expansion problems.…”

Promoting Ge Alloying Reaction via Heterostructure Engineering for High Efficient and Ultra‐Stable Sodium‐Ion Storage

“…[ 22 ] Besides, the alloying reactions are usually accompanied by huge volume expansion of the host materials, which leads to anode degradation and poor capacity retention. [ 23,24 ] An effective strategy to enhance the reaction kinetics is to design nanostructured heterojunction, which cannot only short the sodium ion diffusion path, but also generate a built‐in electric field at the heterointerfaces, further improving the electrochemical reaction kinetics. [ 25–27 ] Accompanied surface engineering such as carbon coating of nanosized active materials is commonly employed to prevent their pulverization and aggregation during cycling.…”