title: Electrical, Mechanical, and Capacity Percolation Leads to High-Performance MoS2/Nanotube Composite Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes.
abstract: Advances in lithium ion batteries would facilitate technological developments in areas from electrical vehicles to mobile communications. While two-dimensional systems like MoS2 are promising electrode materials due to their potentially high capacity, their poor rate capability and low cycle stability are severe handicaps. Here, we study the electrical, mechanical, and lithium storage properties of solution-processed MoS2/carbon nanotube anodes. Nanotube addition gives up to 10(10)-fold and 40-fold increases in electrical conductivity and mechanical toughness, respectively. The increased conductivity results in up to a 100× capacity enhancement to ∼1200 mAh/g (∼3000 mAh/cm(3)) at 0.1 A/g, while the improved toughness significantly boosts cycle stability. Composites with 20 wt % nanotubes combine high reversible capacity with excellent cycling stability (e.g., ∼950 mAh/g after 500 cycles at 2 A/g) and high rate capability (∼600 mAh/g at 20 A/g). The conductivity, toughness, and capacity scale with nanotube content according to percolation theory, while the stability increases sharply at the mechanical percolation threshold. We believe that the improvements in conductivity and toughness obtained after addition of nanotubes can be transferred to other electrode materials, such as silicon nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University , Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yuping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Centers, Trinity College Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Xiaoyun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Centers, Trinity College Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hanlon
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Centers, Trinity College Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Centers, Trinity College Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Umar
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University , Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yanguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, CRANN and AMBER Centers, Trinity College Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Jonathan N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Coleman
keywords: anode; mechanical; network; percolating