title: Enhanced sodium-ion battery performance by structural phase transition from two-dimensional hexagonal-SnS2 to orthorhombic-SnS.
abstract: Structural phase transitions can be used to alter the properties of a material without adding any additional elements and are therefore of significant technological value. It was found that the hexagonal-SnS2 phase can be transformed into the orthorhombic-SnS phase after an annealing step in an argon atmosphere, and the thus transformed SnS shows enhanced sodium-ion storage performance over that of the SnS2, which is attributed to its structural advantages. Here, we provide the first report on a SnS@graphene architecture for application as a sodium-ion battery anode, which is built from two-dimensional SnS and graphene nanosheets as complementary building blocks. The as-prepared SnS@graphene hybrid nanostructured composite delivers an excellent specific capacity of 940 mAh g(-1)and impressive rate capability of 492 and 308 mAh g(-1) after 250 cycles at the current densities of 810 and 7290 mA g(-1), respectively. The performance was found to be much better than those of most reported anode materials for Na-ion batteries. On the basis of combined ex situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and ex situ X-ray diffraction, the formation mechanism of SnS@graphene and the synergistic Na-storage reactions of SnS in the anode are discussed in detail. The SnS experienced a two-structural-phase transformation mechanism (orthorhombic-SnS to cubic-Sn to orthorhombic-Na3.75Sn), while the SnS2 experienced a three-structural-phase transformation mechanism (hexagonal-SnS2 to tetragonal-Sn to orthorhombic-Na3.75Sn) during the sodiation process. The lesser structural changes of SnS during the conversion are expected to lead to good structural stability and excellent cycling stability in its sodium-ion battery performance. These results demonstrate that the SnS@graphene architecture offers unique characteristics suitable for high-performance energy storage application.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Wollongong , North Wollongong, New South Wales 2500, Australia.
authors.forename: Tengfei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Wei Kong
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Chaofeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhixin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hua Kun
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zaiping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo