Herein, we successfully synthesized two novel metal thiophosphites (MTPs) hybridized with carbon, that is, NiPS 3 /C and SnPS 3 /C composites, via an environment-friendly and cost-effective approach without harsh reaction conditions. Subsequently, the electrochemical performances of NiPS 3 /C and SnPS 3 /C composites have been investigated in coin-cells, and it is revealed that MTPs/C have a significantly higher Li-storage capacity and better stability compared to the MTPs without carbon. Moreover, the SnPS 3 /C electrode shows a lower internal resistance and a better rate performance compared to NiPS 3 /C. We employed extensive ex situ experiments to characterize the materials and interpreted the remarkably improved performance of MTPs/C.

Tin chalcogenides are considered as promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high theoretical lithium-storage capacity. Herein, we have successfully synthesized the composites of tin chalcogenides and graphite, that is, SnS/C, SnSe/C, and SnS 0.5 Se 0.5 /C, via a simple one-pot solid-state method. During the electrochemical test, they exhibit excellent lithiumstorage ability and cyclic performance as the anode electrodes of LIBs due to the introduction of carbon. In particular, (i) SnS/C displayed a high specific capacity of 875 mAh g −1 at 0.2 A g −1 over 200 cycles; (ii) SnSe/C presents 734 mAh g −1 at 0.2 A g −1 after 100 cycles, and it delivers 690 mAh g −1 at 1.0 A g −1 over 300 cycles; and (iii) the SnS 0.5 Se 0.5 /C composite electrode delivers a specific capacity of 643 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 over 150 cycles. Furthermore, another series of tin-based composites have also been successfully fabricated (i.e., Sn/C, SnS 2 /C, SnSe 2 /C, and SnTe/C), showing the general applicability of the synthetic route applied here. Our synthetic approach demonstrates a promising route for the large-scale production of high-performance tin chalcogenides/C anode materials for LIBs and other battery systems (e.g., Na-ion and K-ion batteries).

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Tin oxide (SnO x ) materials suffer from volume expansion and poor electronic conductivity when used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this paper, SnO x nanoparticles were controllably encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanofibers (NCNFs) by a facile electrospinning method and subsequent carbonization procedure. The achieved SnO x /NCNFs directly served as free-standing anodes for LIBs. Compared with SnO x prepared on the surface of NCNFs, the encapsulated one exhibits excellent cycling and rate performance, which delivers a specific capacity of 609 mA h g −1 after 1000 cycles. There may be two reasons for the remarkable lithium storage performance. (1) Carbon nanofibers can effectively suppress the volume expansion of SnO x nanoparticles during electrochemical reactions. (2) The N doped in carbon nanofibers provides accelerated diffusion of lithium ions and electrons.