Chain Mail Heterostructured Hydrangea-like Binary Metal Sulfides for High Efficiency Sodium Ion Battery

Abstract Metal sulfides has long been deemed as advanced anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). However, the intrinsic defects (e.g., poor electrical conductivity and large volume variation) impede this material to reach the expectations of practical application. Here, we designed a unique chain mail Sb2S3/MoS2 heterostructure based on one step sulfidation of the hydrangea-like Sb2MoO6 precursor and the obtained Sb2S3/MoS2 heterostructure exhibits large specific surface area as well as well-distributed heterointerfaces between Sb2S3 and MoS2 among the whole composite. The introduction of band engineering modulates electronic states of heterointerfaces, which induced built-in electrical field for accelerated interfacial charge transportation. Meanwhile, the in-situ formed nitrogen-rich carbon chain mail can not only facilitate electron migration and stabilize the active interfaces of Sb/Mo/Na2S intermediate phases, but also provide enhanced mechanical strength to accommodate volume expansion over sodiation, rendering admirable structure stability. Attributed to these superiorities, the as-developed SIBs exhibit an enhanced cycling performance of 411.5 mAh g-1 over 650 cycles at 5 A g-1. This work opens a new pathway for the material engineering strategy to design chain mail heterostructured material towards excellent performance.