High-capacity and cycling-stable anode for sodium ion batteries constructed from SnS2/MWCNTs nanocomposites

Abstract

Recently, SnS2 has obtained considerable attention for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) as anode materials because of their high theoretical capacities. However, the large capacity loss and poor conductivity during the charge-discharge process need to be solved urgently. In this work, the synthesis of the SnS2/MWCNTs nanocomposites has been designed and proposed to be an anode for SIBs. We can find that the incorporation of MWCNTs not only promote the aggregation and reduce the separation of SnS2, but also reduce the loss of SnS2 nanoparticles, and thus generating large size nanoparticles. Furthermore, XPS and TGA results reveal that the bonds between MWCNTs and SnS2 nanoparticles enhance the structural stability of SnS2/MWCNTs nanocomposites, prevent the aggregation, and effectively buffer the volume changes of the SnS2/MWCNTs nanocomposites during the charge-discharge process. Consequently, the performance is significantly reinforced, which could be ascribed to the synergistic effects of SnS2/MWCNTs nanocomposites, especially for the 0.015 g sample. This work offers an easy route to boost the electrochemical energy storage performance of SIBs.