Various Structured Molybdenum-based Nanomaterials as Advanced Anode Materials for Lithium ion Batteries.

A facile and scalable solvothermal high-temperature treatment strategy was developed to construct few-layered ultrasmall MoS2 with less than three layers. These are embedded in carbon spheres (MoS2-C) and can be used as advanced anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In the resulting architecture, the intimate contact between MoS2 surface and carbon spheres can effectively avert aggregation and volume expansion of MoS2 during the lithiation-delithiation process. Moreover, it improves the structural integrity of the electrode remarkably, while the conductive carbon spheres provide quick transport of both electrons and ions within the electrode. Benefiting from this unique structure, the resulting hybrid manifests outstanding electrochemical performance, including an excellent rate capability (1085, 885, and 510 mAh g-1 at 0.5, 2, and 5 A g-1), and a superior cycling stability at high rates (maintaining 100% of the initial capacity following 500 cycles at 0.5 A g-1). Using identical methods, molybdenum carbide and phosphide supported on carbon spheres (Mo2C-C, and MoP-C) were prepared for LIBs. As a result, MoS2-C exhibits outstanding lithium storage capacities due to its specific layered structure. This study investigates large-scale production capabilities of few-layered structure ultrasmall MoS2 for energy storage, and thoroughly compares lithium storage performance of molybdenum compounds.