Tailored Ni2P nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon as a superior anode material for Li-ion batteries

Herein, we designed a novel rod-like composite with Ni2P nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon (Ni2P/NPC) as a superior anode material for Li-ion batteries. With the aid of N-doped carbon, the Ni2P/NPC composite effectively buffers the volume expansion, and wondrously improves the electrochemical performances by creating more defects on the surface. With a unique structure, the tailored Ni2P/NPC anode material shows remarkable lithium storage performances. The composite delivers a considerable initial discharge capacity of 1570.4 mA h g(-1) at 100 mA g(-1) (the theoretical specific capacity is 542 mA h g(-1)), and a significant cycling stability (492.9 mA h g(-1) after 178 cycles at 100 mA g(-1)). In particular, a high rate capability of 230.0 mA h g(-1) at 1000 mA g(-1) is displayed. The designed architecture not only presents a new avenue to build advanced Ni2P-based nanoparticles on N-doped carbon for lithium storage, but also provides a means to explore other transition-metal phosphides toward various applications.