Balanced Crystallinity and Nanostructure for SnS<sub>2</sub> Nanosheets through Optimized Calcination Temperature toward Enhanced Pseudocapacitive Na<sup>+</sup> Storage.

Gao, Yuan; Hai, Pengqi; Liu, Lei; Yin, Junyi; Gan, Zihan; Ai, Wei; Wu, Chao; Cheng, Yonghong et al. · ACS Nano · 2022

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) are expected to take the place of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) as next-generation electrochemical energy storage devices due to the cost advantages they offer. However, due to the larger ion radius, the reaction kinetics of Na<sup>+</sup> in anode materials is sluggish. SnS<sub>2</sub> is an attractive anode material for SIBs due to its large interlayer spacing and alloying reactions with high capacity. Calcination is usually employed to improve the crystallinity of SnS<sub>2</sub>, which could affect the Na<sup>+</sup> reaction kinetics, especially the pseudocapacitive storage. However, excessively high temperature could damage the well-designed nanostructure of SnS<sub>2</sub>. In this work, we uniformly grow SnS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets on a Zn-, N-, and S-doped carbon skeleton (SnS<sub>2</sub>@ZnNS). To explore the optimal calcination temperature, SnS<sub>2</sub>@ZnNS is calcined at three typical temperatures (300, 350, and 400 °C), and the electrochemical performance and Na<sup>+</sup> storage kinetics are investigated specifically. The results show that the sample calcined at 350 °C exhibited the best rate capacity and cycle performance, and the reaction kinetics analysis shows that the same sample exhibited a stronger pseudocapacitive response than the other two samples. This improved Na<sup>+</sup> storage capability can be attributed to the enhanced crystallinity and the intact nanostructure.