Mass produced Sb/P@C composite nanospheres for advanced sodium-ions battery anodes

Despite the great potential of nano-alloying anodes to prominently increase the electrochemical performance in sodium ions batteries, the low-cost and mass-produced methods, as well as the optimization design of alloy-based composites are still needed. Herein, a simple but effective electrospinning method is used to fabricate Sb/P@C composite nanospheres with adjustable P, Sb ratio and uniform morphology. It is found that the amount of Sb inside the Sb/P@C composite and the porous structure can be readily modulated. It is worth noting that the improved electrochemical performance of the Sb/P@C anodes can be attributed to the synergistic effect of Na+ ions storage and superior charge transfer in the fabricated composite with reciprocally inlaid Sb/P and C that inhibiting the aggregation of nanospheres. Particularly, the mosaic distribution of Sb/P nanospheres in the carbon matrix not only accelerate the ions and electrons transfer but also serve as the buffer for alleviating the volumetric variation. Importantly, a high capacity of 350 mAh g(-1) can be achieved even rising current density to 500 mA g(-1), indicating great potential for high rate sodium ions anodes. The tactics of this work should be general to other alloy-type systems, such as Sn, Bi et al., which also suffer from severe volume expansion causing electrode performance degradation.

Automated summary

A simple and effective electrospinning method is used to fabricate Sb/P@C composite nanospheres with adjustable P, Sb ratio and uniform morphology. The improved electrochemical performance of the Sb/P@C anodes can be attributed to the synergistic effect of Na+ ions storage and superior charge transfer in the fabricated composite with reciprocally inlaid Sb/P and C that inhibiting the aggregation of nanospheres. The tactics of this work should be general to other alloy-type systems, indicating great potential for high rate sodium ions anodes.