Carbon Confined Mesoporous Catkin-like SnPS3 Nanostructure for Lithium Storage with Great Superiority

Metal phosphosulfides (MPSs) are members of a category of emerging energy storage and conversion materials, particularly having significant potentials in lithium storage due to their phosphorus and sulfur dual anion centers and unique two-dimensional channels. Nevertheless, it is still very challenging for the controllable design and synthesis of MPSs nanomaterials with complex-element components. Herein, a distinctive carbon confined mesoporous catkin-like SnPS3 nanostructure (SnPS3@C) is controllably synthesized and fabricated based on the partial volatilization of the reduced tin and the following bottom-up phosphosulfuration by a chemical vapor deposition method. As the anode material of lithium ion batteries, the catkin-like SnPS3@C offers multiple active centers for lithium insertion, complete carbon shell to protect inner active materials, interlaced fibrous networks for efficient electron transfer as well as abundant inner mesopores for Li+ diffusion and volume buffer, thus showing prominent structure advantages in lithium storage. The catkin-like SnPS3@C electrode demonstrated superior electrochemical capability with a very high reversible capacity (1302 mAh g-1 at 300 mA g-1), excellent rate property (630 mAh g-1 at 8000 mA g-1) and distinguished cycling stability (1030 mAh g-1 after 1000 cycles at 1000 mA g-1). This work offers a new avenue to develop high-performance MPSs materials for advanced lithium ion batteries.