Sulfur-Deficient Porous SnS2−x Microflowers as Superior Anode for Alkaline Ion Batteries

Abstract

SnS2 as a high energy anode material has attracted extensive research interest recently. However, the fast capacity decay and low rate performance in alkaline-ion batteries associated with repeated volume variation and low electrical conductivity plague them from practical application. Herein, we propose a facile method to solve this problem by synthesizing porous SnS2 microflowers with in-situ formed sulfur vacancies. The flexible porous nanosheets in the three-dimensional flower-like nanostructure provide facile strain relaxation to avoid stress concentration during the volume changes. Rich sulfur vacancies and porous structure enable the fast and efficient electron transport. The porous SnS2−x microflowers exhibit outstanding performance for lithium ion battery in terms of high capacity (1375 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1) and outstanding rate capability (827 mA h g−1 at high rate of 2 A g−1). For sodium ion battery, a high capacity (~522 mAh g−1) can be achieved at 5 A g−1 after 200 cycles for SnS2−x microflowers. The rational design in nanostructures, as well as the chemical compositions, might create new opportunities in designing the new architecture for highly efficient energy storage devices.

Microwave-Assisted Fabrication of High Energy Density Binary Metal Sulfides for Enhanced Performance in Battery Applications

“…Microwave-generated tin sulfide (SnS 2 ), which is known for its inherently high electronic conductivity, has been tested for its applicability in lithium-ion [ 31 , 48 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ] and sodium-ion batteries [ 31 ] in the guise of nanoflakes [ 31 , 75 ], intercalated sheets [ 76 ], and microflowers [ 77 ]. As a layered 2D motif, SnS 2 gave rise to a relatively high theoretical capacity of 645 mA h g –1 for LIB applications.…”

One‐pot synthesis of SnS 2 Nanosheets supported on g‐C 3 N 4 as high capacity and stable cycling anode for sodium‐ion batteries

“…15,16 However, analogous to other conversion-alloying anode materials, SnS 2 suffers from rapid capacity fading due to the large variation in volume, leading to the destruction and contact loss of active materials during charge/discharge processes. [17][18][19] To overcome this limitation, many strategies have been reported such as carbon coating, 20,21 doping, 22 and nanoarchitecture, 23,24 in which the most effective pathway is fabricating a composite between SnS 2 and nonor less active materials. For instance, various materials such as graphene, 25,26 reduced graphene oxides, 19,27 carbon nanotubes, 28 MXenes, 29 and Prussian blue, 30 were used as supporting materials for growing SnS 2 nanosheets toward well-distributed composites, which show significant improvements in electrochemical performance compared to pure SnS 2 .…”