Top-Down Ultrasonication-Assisted Exfoliation for Prebonded Phosphorene–Graphene Heterostructures Enabling Fast Lithiation/Delithiation

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 13; no. 22; pp. 25946 - 25959
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jianyu, Shin, Hosop, Lu, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 09.06.2021
• Subjects: Energy, Environmental, and Catalysis Applications; high-capacity anode; ultrasonication; ball milling; phosphorus−graphene; black phosphorus; 2D material; lithium-ion battery
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c03583

We show a top-down synthesis approach to mass-produce phosphorene–graphene nanosheet composites with superior cycle stability and rate capability. Currently, using exfoliation to achieve two-dimensional (2D) materials is primarily limited to pure crystals. We discover that high-quality nanoscale 2D composite phosphorene–graphene sheets can be directly exfoliated from extremely low-cost bulk three-dimensional (3D) black phosphorus–graphite composites synthesized by mechanical milling while maintaining the chemical bonding and intimate electronic contact between 2D composite layers. The hybrid phosphorene–graphene material delivers high reversible capacities of 2030, 2003, and 1597 mAh/g at high current densities of 2, 4, and 6 A/g, respectively. Quantifying the dimensional electrochemical performance, we show that 2D phosphorene–graphene nanosheets not only have excellent electrochemical kinetics for fast lithium-ion diffusion and storage but also maintain the overall structural robustness of the entire electrode for long-term cyclability. This scalable synthesis paves the way for the practical application of phosphorene–graphene materials in batteries.