In-situ coupling SnS with nitrogen-doped porous carbon for boosting Li-storage in lithium-ion battery and capacitor

Tin sulfide (SnS) becomes a competitive alternative anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its cost-effects and high theoretical capacity. Herein, a simple freeze-drying and annealing synthetic strategy was exploited to in-situ couple SnS with nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanosheets to fabricate SnS@NPC nanocomposites. In this nanostructure, SnS nanoparticles were well embedded into citric acid-derived nitrogen-doped carbon hierarchical frameworks with enlarged surface areas and abundant porosity. Besides, the reversible Li-ion storage property of this novel nanostructured anode in LIBs was also investigated and compared with the bare SnS counterpart. It was indicated that the SnS@NPC hybrid electrode exhibited a tremendously boosted electrochemical performance. After cycling 200 times at 100 mA g(-1) and 300 times at 10 0 0 mA g(-1), a high specific capacity of 851.5 mA h g(-1) and 607.6 mA h g(-1) was remained respectively. Furthermore, with SnS@NPC as anode and the activated carbon (AC) as cathode, a new-type of lithium ion capacitor (LIC) was also fabricated, which exhibited a specific capacitance of 70.1 F g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1) and a maximum energy density of 155.5 Wh kg(-1) at 213.6 W kg(-1). The well-engineered nanostructures as well as the aroused synergistic effect between SnS and nitrogen-doped carbon materials are considered to be responsible for the enhanced electrochemical property. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A simple synthesis strategy was used to fabricate SnS@NPC nanocomposites, with the new nanostructure exhibiting enhanced electrochemical performance in lithium ion batteries. The hybrid electrode showed higher specific capacity and improved cycling stability compared to bare SnS, attributed to the well-engineered nanostructures and synergistic effect between SnS and nitrogen-doped carbon materials.