Construction of sponge-like MoS2/NC composite as high rate and long cycle life anode materials for sodium ion batteries

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) has attracted significant attention as a prospective anode material for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). However, the poor rate capability and cycling performance induced by the slow electrochemical reaction kinetics and huge volume change during sodiation/desodiation process. Herein, a sponge-like structure of MoS 2 /NC composite is designed and evaluated as anode materials for SIBs. In such architecture, the sponge-like structure with rich porous structure can not only ensure fast Na + diffusion, but also provide enough space to mitigation the volume change during repeated sodiation/desodiation process. Accordingly, the obtained S-MoS 2 /NC composite presents excellent long-term cycling performance (345 mA h g −1 after 3000 cycles at 5 A g −1 ) and outstanding rate capability (464 mA h g −1 at 10 A g −1 ) for SIBs. Furthermore, the full cell assembled with Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 @C cathode and S-MoS 2 /NC anode delivers outstanding cycling performance, a high capacity of 285 mA h g −1 is maintained after 950 cycles at 1.0 A g −1 .