Mo2C/N-doped carbon nanowires as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Herein we report Mo2C/N-doped carbon hierarchical nanowires (Mo2C/N-C HNWs) as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In the Mo2C/N-C HNWs, Mo2C nanocrystallites are uniformly distributed in N-doped carbon matrix. The nanocrystallites of Mo2C offer short paths for Na+ diffusion, the mesoporous structure facilitates the diffusion of electrolyte, and the N-doped carbon matrix accelerates the electron transfer. As anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, the Mo2C/N-C HNWs exhibited reversible capacities of 381 and 308 mAh g(-1) at current densities of 50 and 200 mA g(-1), respectively. Our results demonstrate the enhanced Na+ storage activity of Mo2C after structure tailoring, elucidating the potential of transition-metal carbides as promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.