Organic-Inorganic Conformal Extending High-Purity Metal Nanosheets for Robust Electrochemical Lithium-Ion Storage

2D metal nanosheets present potential applications in catalysis, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, nonlinear optics, energy conversion, and storage due to their extraordinary surface chemistry and quantum-size effects. However, the massive preparation of 2D metal nanosheets with high purity remains challenging. Herein, a scalable and highly efficient approach that relies on organic-inorganic conformal extending procedures to prepare high-purity 2D metal nanosheets (e.g., Sn and Al) with thicknesses of one to a few nanometers is developed. This approach not only results in metal nanosheets with a very uniform and controllable thickness but also effectively avoids the introduction of impurities of other metals and oxides. As a result, this strategy enables scalable preparation of 2D ultrathin metal nanosheets with thicknesses of 1-3 nm. As a proof-of-the-concept application, a compact hybrid anode is constructed from a 2D stacked combination of Sn nanosheets and 2D graphene oxide (SnNS-GO), which show a high reversible capacity of & AP;940 mAh g(-1) and excellent cycling stability of 1200 cycles without capacity decay. It is believed that this scalable and facile preparation methodology will facilitate the fundamental research and applications of 2D metal nanosheets in important fields, such as electrochemical energy storage, catalysis, nonlinear optics, sensors, etc.

Automated summary

A scalable and highly efficient approach for the preparation of high-purity 2D metal nanosheets has been developed using organic-inorganic conformal extending procedures. The approach achieves uniform and controllable thickness of metal nanosheets while avoiding the introduction of impurities. As a proof-of-the-concept application, a compact hybrid anode constructed from Sn nanosheets and graphene oxide exhibits high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability. This methodology is expected to facilitate the fundamental research and applications of 2D metal nanosheets in various important fields.