A 2D Metal Oxide Nanosheet as an Efficient Additive for Improving Na‐Ion Electrode Activity of Graphene‐Based Nanocomposites

Abstract

What is the most significant result of this study? An efficient synthetic strategy to explore high-performance Na-ion electrode materials was developed by employing exfoliated metal oxide nanosheets as an additive for graphene-based nanocompo-sites. The incorporation of small amount of metal oxide nanosheets into metal-chalcogenide-graphene nanocomposites is quite effective in improving the nanoscale mixing of components and in enhancing the porosity of composite structure. These new nanocom-posite materials show much better Na-ion electrode performance with larger discharge capacity and higher rate characteristics than the metal oxide-free nanocomposite. What prompted you to investigate this topic/problem? Recently,w ef ound that the incorporation of exfoliated metal oxide nanosheets leads to the significant improvement of the pore and composite structures of graphene-based nanocomposites. Considering that many graphene-based nanocomposites show promising Na-ion electrode functionalities, we tried to apply this synthetic strategy to metal-chalcogenide-graphene nanocompo-sites to explore efficient electrode material for Na-ion batteries-an emerging alternative to currently commercialized Li-ion batteries. What was the biggest challenge(on the way to the results presented in this paper)? Considering that the exfoliated titanate nanosheets show quite high efficiency as an additive for improving the Na-ion electrode performance of SnS 2-graphene nanocomposites, the optimal concentration of titanate additive is much lower than we expected. Thus, the biggest challenge of this work is to determine the optimal concentration of the nanosheets for enhancing the Na-ion electrode functionality of the nanocomposites. Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Seong-Ju Hwang at the Ewha WomansU niversity.T he image depicts the criticalr ole of exfoliated metal oxide nanosheets as additivesi ni mproving the sodium-ion electrode functionality of metal-chalcogenide-graphene nanocomposites. Read the full text of the article at

Application of Exfoliated Inorganic Nanosheets for Strongly‐Coupled Hybrid Photocatalysts

“…A strong van der Waals‐type interlayer interaction of g‐C 3 N 4 provides this material with high thermal stability and excellent chemical resistance against diverse solvents like water, ethanol, toluene, diethyl ether, and tetrahydrofuran (THF) . Many of the graphene‐related materials are also widely used as cocatalysts and/or conductive components hybridized with other semiconducting photocatalysts …”

Carbon‐Based Alloy‐Type Composite Anode Materials toward Sodium‐Ion Batteries

“…The existence of additive in the composite system enhanced the Na + storage property according to the ratio of titanate and RGO added. The resulting nanocomposites supply higher discharge capacities and rate properties to the titanate‐free nanocomposite …”

Recent Applications of 2D Inorganic Nanosheets for Emerging Energy Storage System

“…Our group demonstrated that the additive effects of nanosheets for TMD‐based electrode materials originated from the high surface area and prevention of self‐restacking. Graphene‐SnS 2 nanosheet‐titanate nanosheet composites were reported for SIBs . Titanate nanosheets were used as the additive in this composite, which prevented the self‐restacking of SnS 2 nanosheets and graphene, leading to the significant improvement of the mixing of graphene and SnS 2 , and the porosity of composite.…”

“…Also, the porous stacking structure and/or enlarged interlayer spacing can facilitate the diffusions of ion and electrolyte into the nanosheet‐based electrode. The hybridization of electrode crystal with exfoliated inorganic nanosheets is effective in improving its electrode performance through the depressed aggregation of electrode crystals and intimate mixing between hybridized components . In Section 4. the latest results related to the inorganic nanosheet applications will be discussed.…”

“…[22] Since most of exfoliated nanosheets possess distinct surfacec harge, they can be used as building blocks to form nanohybrids and nanocomposites through electrostatically-driven assembling with oppositecharged species. [23] The detailed synthesis strategy will be discussedi nS ection 3.[a] S. M. Oh, Dr.…”