“…It's necessary to devote some efforts to study alternative anode materials with higher specific capacity, desirable rate capability and long cycle life to meet the ever-increasing performance demands. Transition metal sulfides such as copper sulfides [2,3], ferric sulfides [4,5], cobalt sulfides [6e8] and nickel sulfides [9e13] have been actively investigated as possible candidates for anode materials due to their high capacity, low cost and eco-friendliness. Among the family of transition metal sulfides, nickel sulfides have caused a special attention due to their interesting electronic, magnetic, optical properties [14,15] and their multiple potential applications including LIBs [9e13], supercapacitors [16e18] and catalysts [19,20].…”