title: A ZnS nanocrystal/reduced graphene oxide composite anode with enhanced electrochemical performances for lithium-ion batteries.
abstract: A simple route for the preparation of ZnS nanocrystal/reduced graphene oxide (ZnS/RGO) by a hydrothermal synthesis process was achieved. The chemical composition, morphology, and structural characterization reveal that the ZnS/RGO composite is composed of sphalerite-phased ZnS nanocrystals uniformly dispersed on functional RGO sheets with a high specific surface area. The ZnS/RGO composite was utilized as an anode in the construction of a high-performance lithium-ion battery. The ZnS/RGO composite with appropriate RGO content exhibits a high reversible specific capacity (780 mA h g-1), excellent cycle stability over 100 cycles (71.3% retention), and good rate performance at 2C (51.2% of its capacity when measured at a 0.1C rate). To further investigate this ZnS/RGO anode for practical use in full Li-ion cells, we tested the electrochemical performance of the ZnS/RGO anode at different cut-off voltages for the first time. The presence of RGO plays an important role in providing high conductivity as well as a substrate with a high surface area. This helps alleviate the typically problems associated with volume expansion and shrinkage during prolonged cycling. Additionally, the RGO provides multiple nucleation points that result in a uniformly dispersed film of nanosized ZnS that covers its surface. Thus, the high surface area RGO enables high electronic conductivity and fast charge transfer kinetics for ZnS lithiation/delithiation.
authors: Key Laboratory of Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Functional Materials Chemistry (Tianjin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, College of Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China. hxxyfy@mail.tjnu.edu.cn and Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. vsbattaglia@lbl.gov.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Feng
authors: Key Laboratory of Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Functional Materials Chemistry (Tianjin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, College of Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China. hxxyfy@mail.tjnu.edu.cn.
authors: Yuliang
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Key Laboratory of Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Functional Materials Chemistry (Tianjin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, College of Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, P. R. China. hxxyfy@mail.tjnu.edu.cn.
authors: Yuzhen
authors: Y
authors: Wei
authors: Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. vsbattaglia@lbl.gov.
authors: Xiangyun
authors: X
authors: Song
authors: Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. vsbattaglia@lbl.gov.
authors: Yanbo
authors: Y
authors: Fu
authors: Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. vsbattaglia@lbl.gov.
authors: Vincent S
authors: VS
authors: Battaglia