Squid Ink‐Assisted Fabricating MoS2 Nanosheets/Ultrafine Biocarbon Spheres Composites with an Enhanced Lithium Ion Storage Performance

Abstract

AbstractA strategy of utilizing biomass in energy applications has been highly concerned due to their low cost, renewability and environmental friendly. In this work, as one of rare zero‐dimensional biomass, squid inks composed of numerous uniform nanospheres are employed as both template and carbon source to fabricate a novel MoS2/carbon sphere composites by a facile glucose‐containing hydrothermal method and heat treatment. Differing to the common vertical growth of MoS2 nanosheets on the surface of substrates, the growth of the ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets along the surface of biospheres can be noticed evidently, leading to a closer combination of MoS2 nanosheets and carbon spheres. The as‐obtained MoS2/carbon sphere composites are further coated by a carbon film derived from glucoses to form a novel hierarchical porous architecture, thus showing the better structural integrity of the electrode materials, the enhanced electrical conductivity and the quick transport of electrons and Li+ ions. As anode materials of lithium ion batteries, the composites exhibit the excellent reversible discharge capacity with 97% of its initial capacity after 100 cycles at 0.5 A/g and rate capability of 510 mAh/g even at 10 A/g. These results not only indicate that the obtained product is a promising anode material for advanced LIBs, but also provides a new strategy for rational utilization of biotemplates.