Graphene Nanosheets Suppress the Growth of Sb Nanoparticles in an Sb/C Nanocomposite to Achieve Fast Na Storage

Abstract

204 wileyonlinelibrary.com www.particle-journal.com www. MaterialsViews.com Presently, graphene incorporation is one of the most effective strategies to develop superior electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Herein, it is excitingly found that an incorporated graphene nanosheet in the preparation processes can not only completely protect all the Sb nanoparticles in an Sb/C composite from being inactivated, but also suppresses their growth to undesirable micrometer size. While there are still many exposed Sb particulates on the surface of pristine Sb/C microplates, the graphene-incorporated Sb/C/G nanocomposite consists of uniform Sb nanoparticles of 20-50 nm, all of which have been protected by and wrapped in the mixed carbon network. When used as anode materials for SIBs, the Sb/C/G nanocomposite exhibits the best Nastorage properties in terms of the highest reversible capacity (650 mA h g −1 at 0.025 A g −1 ), fastest Na-storage ability (290 mA h g −1 at a high current density of 8 A g −1 ), and optimal cycling performance (no capacity decay after 200 cycles), in comparison to pristine Sb/C and pure Sb. It is further revealed that the much enhanced performance should originate from the improvement of Na-storage kinetics and increase of electronic conductivity via comparing the electrochemical impedance spectra, and cyclic voltammetry profi les, as well as the polarization variation along with current densities.electrode materials of SIBs with superior electrochemical properties, including high specifi c capacity, excellent high-rate performance, and long cycle life. For the SIBs, developing high-performance anode materials should be one of the most urgent research assignments, because the traditional graphite anode of LIBs can hardly achieve Na-storage. Presently, many anode materials have been proposed including carbonaceous materials with low degree of graphitization, [ 3 ] metallic alloys, [ 4 ] oxides and sulfi des, [ 5 ] and organic compounds. [ 6 ] Among those anode materials, alloying antimony (Sb) element has drawn great attention because of the low and suitable potentials for sodiation/desodiation and high theoretical Na-storage capacity (660 mA h g −1 ) corresponding to the formation of Na 3 Sb phase. Unfortunately, the severe volume expansion and contraction during sodiation and desodiation will lead to the undesirable pulverization of the whole electrode and hence the invalidation of electronic transport pathways, [ 7 ] which makes the common Sb material usually exhibit poor cycle stability, as well as unsatisfactory high-rate capabilities.In order to relieve the volumetric effects to enhance the Na-storage properties of Sb anode material, many strategies have been reported previously. The main ones include: i) preparing special nanostructures such as monodisperse Sb nanocrystals [ 8 ] and porous Sb hollow spheres, [ 9 ] ii) synthesizing Sb-containing alloys or their composites with low volume variation during Na-uptake/release cycles, e.g., Sn-Ge-Sb ternary alloy, [ 10 ] Sb/C...

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“…The obtained HCC was further washed in hydrochloric acid solution and distilled water several times and then dried at 80°C. Such a preparation process for HCC anode with outstanding Na-storage properties had been extensively explored and reported in our previous study [43][44][45].…”

Alloy‐Based Anode Materials toward Advanced Sodium‐Ion Batteries

“…[25] Innovative investigation of Sb-based anodes also focuses on constructing novel electrode configurations (e.g., Sb-carbon www.advmat.de www.advancedsciencenews.com composites). [116][117][118] In order to construct a reliable configuration for Sb-based electrode, Wan et al proposed a micro-/nanostructural Sb/ graphene composite (Sb-O-G) with uniform Sb nanospheres (≈100 nm in diameter) binding on graphene via oxygen bonds (Figure 5e). Embedding Sb on carbon nanofibers/nanospheres has been considered as an effective method to accommodate the dramatic volume expansion and enhance ionic diffusion and charge transfer.…”