Unveiling the Double‐Edged Behavior of Controlled Selenium Substitution in Cobalt Sulfide for Balanced Na‐Storage Capacity and Rate Capability

Abstract

AbstractTransition metal sulfide‐based anodes usually suffer from huge volumetric change and sluggish reaction kinetics, hindering their application for long‐term and high‐power/energy sodium‐ion batteries. Herein, a new design of CoS2‐xSex (0≤x≤2) nanocrystals with highly controllable selenium substitution and S, Se‐codoped graphene immobilization (CoS2‐xSex@SG) is proposed to tune the reaction kinetics and structural stability. The nanocrystal‐on‐graphene structure and robust C─S &C─Se bonding rivets between CoS2‐xSex and SG greatly improve the structural stability of the CoS2‐xSex@SG. Electrochemical performance, kinetic analysis, and theoretical calculation reveal that Se substitution plays a double‐edged role in sodium storage: the increase of Se substitution content enhances the Na+ diffusion kinetics but decreases the Na‐storage capacity. When the Se substitution content is 0.4, the CoS1.6Se0.4@SG electrode demonstrates the best performance: high initial Coulombic efficiency (95.5%), ultrahigh rate capability (412.8 mAh g−1 at 30 A g−1), and ultra‐stable cycling performance (97.6% capacity retention after 1000 cycles). In situ/ex situ measurements further unveil that the conversion reaction between Co0 and Na2S/Na2Se generates the micro‐scaled CoSe2–CoS2 heterostructure, synergistically improving the Na‐storage active sites and reaction kinetics. This work provides a controllable anion substitution strategy to balance the Na+ storage active sites and kinetics with potential applications for high‐power/energy sodium‐ion batteries.