Facile fabrication of MoS2 nanocrystals confined in waste leather derived N, P co-doped carbon fiber for long-lifespan of sodium/potassium ion batteries

Due to its slow kinetics and complicated multiphase development during cycling, developing anode materials for sodium/potassium-ion batteries (SIBs/PIBs) with high-rate and long-cycle simultaneously is still crucial and challenging. Additionally, the application of abundantly available, waste biomass to energy storage device has become a research hotspot. Herein, using waste leather as the adsorbent and bioreactor, we facilely fabricating the leather derived N/P co-doped carbon fiber composite with MoS2 nanocrystals after sulfuration treatment. Due to the intrinsic advantage of texture and component of collagen fiber, the ultrasmall MoS2 nanocrystals are evenly embedded with N/P co-doped carbon fibers. As expected, the MoS2/NP-C anode shows enhanced sodium/ potassium storage capacity. It exhibits a high specific capacity (368 mAh g-1 at 0.2 A g-1) for PIBs and amazing long-term cycling qualities (241 mAh g-1 at 1 A g-1 even after 2500 cycles) for SIBs. This work provides further insight into the application of waste biomass for fabricating nanocomposite in energy storage.

Automated summary

This study successfully develops a N/P co-doped carbon fiber composite with MoS2 nanocrystals by using waste leather as the adsorbent and bioreactor. The resulting anode material shows enhanced storage capacity and long cycle life for sodium/potassium-ion batteries. This research provides new insights into the application of waste biomass in energy storage.