Controllable growth of MoS2/C flower-like microspheres with enhanced electrochemical performance for lithium ion batteries

Tailored design/fabrication of hierarchical porous advanced electrodes is of great importance for developing high-performance power sources. Herein, we report a facile solvothermal method for fabrication of hierarchical porous MoS2/C flower-like microspheres. Interestingly, the obtained MoS2/C microspheres are composed of interconnected secondary thin nanoflakes and an amorphous carbon layer. As an anode material for lithium ion batteries, the resultant MoS2/C flower-like microspheres electrode delivers a high specific capacity of 1125.9 mAh g(-1) and good cycle capability (916.6 mAh g(-1) at 200 mA g(-1) up to 400 cycles), as well as enhanced rate performance. The excellent electrochemical performance is attributed to the unique porous composite architecture with fast transportation of ion/electron and good strain accommodation during the lithiation/delithiation reaction. Our research may pave the way for construction of other high-performance metal sulfides electrodes for electrochemical energy storage. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.