Mesoporous ZnS-Sb/C Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanostructures as Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Metal-based sulfides are favored by researchers because of their high theoretical capacity, but their inherent volume expansion problems limit their further applications. To address the above issues, we prepared ZnS-Sb@C@rGO core–shell nanosphere anode materials for high-performance sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The ZnS-Sb heteromeric core with synergistic effects was designed to facilitate rapid electrolyte penetration and accelerate Na+ transformation kinetics. Meanwhile, the double coating of the outer carbon shell and rGO layer provides rich sodium embedding sites and improves the conductivity and charge transfer capability of the composite. Its unique layered heterogeneous structure design provides a lot of buffer space and effectively prevents the shedding of active substances. The composite has excellent electrochemical properties in sodium-ion batteries, with a high initial discharge specific capacity of 1117.1 mAh g–1 at 0.1 A g–1. The battery achieves a long cycle life, and the discharge specific capacity is 210.3 mAh g–1 after 300 cycles at 1 A g–1. This novel structural design may be one of the feasible solutions to achieve the excellent properties of SIB anode materials.