Alloying-type
anode materials are regarded as promising alternatives
beyond intercalation-type carbonaceous materials for sodium storage
owing to the high specific capacities. The rapid capacity decay arising
from the huge volume change during Na+-ion insertion/extraction,
however, impedes the practical application. Herein, we report an ultrafine
antimony embedded in a porous carbon nanocomposite (Sb@PC) synthesized via facile in situ substitution of the
Cu nanoparticles in a metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived
octahedron carbon framework for sodium storage. The Sb@PC composite
displays an appropriate redox potential (0.5–0.8 V vs Na/Na+) and excellent specific capacities
of 634.6, 474.5, and 451.9 mAh g–1 at 0.1, 0.2,
and 0.5 A g–1 after 200, 500, and 250 cycles, respectively.
Such superior sodium storage performance is primarily ascribed to
the MOF-derived three-dimensional porous carbon framework and ultrafine
Sb nanoparticles, which not only provides a penetrating network for
rapid transfer of charge carriers but also alleviates the agglomeration
and volume expansion of Sb during cycling. Ex situ X-ray diffraction and in situ Raman analysis clearly
reveal a five-stage reaction mechanism during sodiation and desodiation
and demonstrate the excellent reversibility of Sb@PC for sodium storage.
Furthermore, post-mortem analysis reveals that the
robust structural integrity of Sb@PC can withstand continuous Na+-ion insertion/extraction. This work may provide insight into
the effective design of high-capacity alloying-type anode materials
for advanced secondary batteries.
This study reports the improvement in electrical and thermomechanical properties of pristine poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) by the incorporation of graphene (GN) resulting in GN/PVC composites via mechanical activation (MA) using dioctyl phthalate (DOP) as dispersant. Microstructure, electrical, and thermomechanical properties of GN/PVC were systematically investigated. Scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry, and particle size distribution analysis revealed that high-energy ball milling destroyed the structure of pristine PVC and GN, without any visible agglomeration of GN in the resulting GN/PVC composites. At 0.13 wt% GN loading, the surface resistivity of GN/PVC composites was less than 3 × 10 8 Ω/square, meeting requirements of commercial antistatic PVC materials. Moreover, GN/PVC composites showed enhanced mechanical properties, thermal stability, and glass transition temperature than pristine PVC. Credited to enhanced thermomechanical and electrical properties of the newly designed GN/PVC composites, they could be deemed as potential alternative to classical PVC-based antistatic materials in targeted applications.
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