A novel anode material for sodium-ion batteries consisting of 3D graphene microspheres divided into several tens of uniform nanospheres coated with few-layered MoS 2 by a one-pot spray pyrolysis process is prepared. The fi rst discharge/charge capacities of the composite microspheres are 797 and 573 mA h g −1 at a current density of 0.2 A g −1. The 600th discharge capacity of the composite microspheres at a current density of 1.5 A g −1 is 322 mA h g −1 .The Coulombic effi ciency during the 600 cycles is as high as 99.98%. The outstanding Na ion storage properties of the 3D MoS 2 -graphene composite microspheres may be attributed to the reduced stacking of the MoS 2 layers and to the 3D structure of the porous graphene microspheres. The reduced stacking of the MoS 2 layers relaxes the strain and lowers the barrier for Na + insertion. The empty nanospheres of the graphene offer voids for volume expansion and pathways for fast electron transfer during repeated cycling.

Yolk-shell-structured MoSe₂ microspheres were prepared via a simple selenization process of MoO₃ microspheres. The yolk-shell-structured MoSe₂ and MoO₃ microspheres delivered initial discharge capacities of 527 and 465 mA h g(-1) in the voltage range of 0.001-3 V vs. Na/Na(+) at a current density of 0.2 A g(-1), respectively, and their discharge capacities after 50 cycles were 433 and 141 mA h g(-1), respectively. The yolk-shell-structured MoSe₂ microspheres also exhibited outstanding high rate capabilities. The hierarchical yolk-shell structure comprised of wrinkled nanosheets facilitated fast Na-ion and electron kinetics, and buffered the large volume changes encountered during cycling.

This paper introduces a facile one-pot method for synthesizing a new structured material, named "ant-cave microball", by continuous ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. The ant-cave-structured microballs are prepared from a colloidal spray solution with polystyrene nanobeads and sucrose. Networking between the nanovoids formed by decomposition of the polystyrene nanobeads results in the formation of nanochannels. The electrochemical properties of these ant-cave-structured MoO3-C microballs, prepared as the first target material for lithium ion batteries, are investigated. The nanochannels are uniformly distributed inside the microballs with MoO3 and carbon components uniformly distributed within the microballs. Further, the microballs have initial discharge and charge capacities of 1212 and 841 mA h g(-1), respectively, at a current density of 2 A g(-1), and the initial discharge and charge capacities based on the weight of MoO3 (disregarding carbon component) are as high as 1814 and 1259 mA h g(-1). The microballs deliver a high discharge capacity of 733 mA h g(-1) even after 300 cycles. This is although microsized MoO3 powders with a filled structure have discharge capacities of 1256 and 345 mA h g(-1) for the first and 300th cycles, respectively.

Ultrafine Sb nanocrystals, uniformly distributed in a carbon matrix with a microspherical morphology, were synthesized by one-pot spray pyrolysis. The Sb-carbon composite microspheres exhibited good Na-storage properties with stable cyclability, a capacity retention of 90% over 100 cycles, and good rate performance.