Designing an N-doped 3D porous carbon to mitigate volume expansion of Sb-Mo nanoparticle for Li-ion storage

In rec ent years, Sb-based composites, as a kind of electrode alloy mechanism, have attracted more and more researchers' attention owing to high theoretical specific capacity and reliable safety performance. However, the volume expansion of Sb-based electrode materials during charge/discharge in the process of (de)lithium leading to unstable cycling performance severely limits the progress of Sb-based electrode materials as electrode materials for commercialization. Therefore, we prepared N-doped 3D porous carbon to wrap Sb-Mo nanoparticles in a comprehensible way. By this method, the volume expansion problem of Sb-Mo nanoparticles during the (de)lithiation process can be effectively prevented, and the rate of capacity decay can be effectively mitigated. The obtained Sb-Mo@3DNC samples displayed superior electrochemical performance, especially that the Sb-Mo@3DNC700 exhibits more outstanding rate stability and long cycle performance than Sb-Mo@3DNC-600 and Sb-Mo@3DNC-800. It is worth that the Sb-Mo@3DNC-700 still possesses the reversible capacity of 352.5 mA h g(-1) at the current density of 5 A g(-1) and maintains the reversible capacity of 661.7 mA h g(-1) after 1200 cycles at the current density of 1 A g(-1).

Automated summary

In recent years, Sb-based composites have attracted attention due to their excellent electrochemical performance, but volume expansion issues have hindered commercial applications. Wrapping Sb-Mo nanoparticles with N-doped 3D porous carbon effectively prevents volume expansion, enhancing stability of the electrode materials.