Synergy Effect of High-Stability of VS4 Nanorods for Sodium Ion Battery

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 27; no. 19; p. 6303
• Main Authors: Chen, Yi, Qi, Haimei, Sun, Jie, Lei, Zhibin, Liu, Zong-Huai, Hu, Peng, He, Xuexia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 24.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Anodes; Batteries; Diffusion barriers; Dimethyl ether; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemistry; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Energy storage; Ethylene; Graphene; Lithium; Lithium-ion batteries; Materials selection; Morphology; morphology control; Nanocomposites; Sodium; Sodium-ion batteries; Specific capacity; Stability; synergy effect; Transmission electron microscopy; two-dimensional material; vanadium tetrasulfide
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules27196303

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted increasing interest as promising candidates for large-scale energy storage due to their low cost, natural abundance and similar chemical intercalation mechanism with lithium-ion batteries. However, achieving superior rate capability and long-life for SIBs remains a major challenge owing to the limitation of favorable anode materials selection. Herein, an elegant one-step solvothermal method was used to synthesize VS4 nanorods and VS4 nanorods/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposites. The effects of ethylene carbonate/diethyl carbonate(EC/DEC), ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate(EC/DMC), and tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TEGDME) electrolytes on the electrochemical properties of VS4 nanorods were investigated. The VS4 nanorods electrodes exhibit high specific capacity in EC/DMC electrolytes. A theoretical calculation confirms the advance of EC/DMC electrolytes for VS4 nanorods. Significantly, the discharge capacity of VS4/RGO nanocomposites remains 100 mAh/g after 2000 cycles at a large current density of 2 A/g, indicating their excellent cycling stability. The nanocomposites can improve the electronic conductivity and reduce the Na+ diffusion energy barrier, thereby effectively improving the sodium storage performance of the hybrid material. This work offers great potential for exploring promising anode materials for electrochemical applications.