Honeycomb Structured α-MnS@N-HC Nanocomposite Fabricated by Sol-Gel Pyrolysis Blowing Method and Its High-Performance Lithium Storage

Abstract Although transition metal sulfides (TMS) are regarded as potential anodes for lithium storage in terms of low cost and high capacity, the unsatisfactory suboptimal electronic conductivity and enormous volume expansion of TMS have precluded their practical applications. Herein, we proposed the sol-gel pyrolysis blowing method and successfully encapsulated nano α-MnS in N-doped honeycomb carbon (α-MnS@N-HC). As anode material of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the α-MnS@N-HC nanocomposite offers excellent cycle stability and high reversible specific capacity, being 917 mAh g-1 after 1000 cycles at 1 A g-1 and 1258 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g-1, respectively. The unique honeycomb structure of the produced α-MnS@N-HC nanocomposite is beneficial to obtain superb lithium storage performance, as the interconnected N-doped carbon walls form many stable conductive bridges for efficient electron transport and simultaneously the porous structure provides sufficient diffusion channels for Li ions. The proposed synthetic route is anticipated to afford a general solution for the fabrication of low-cost and high-performance conversion-type related metal sulfide anode materials.