Facile and Scalable Fabrication of Sub-Micro MnS@Nitrogen-Sulfur-Codoped-Carbon Composites for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Half and Full-Cell Batteries

Graphical Facile and scalable route to MnS@NSC composite : A sub-micro MnS@NSC composite was synthesized facilely by employing low-cost commercial MnS as raw material and in-situ compositing with N,S-codoped carbon, which exhibit excellent electrochemical performance in half/full lithium-ion cells. Nanostructured manganese sulfide (MnS) has been verified to be effective to address the issues of MnS as next-generation anode material in high energy lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The scale-up fabrication, however, is still challenged by the multistep and rigid processes of synthesizing MnS nanoparticles. Herein, by using micro-sized MnS as low-cost MnS source, we present a facile, cost-effective and scalable strategy to prepare a sub-micrometer sized MnS@NSC composite, in which MnS nanoparticles are encapsulated into N,S-codoped carbon matrix (NSC) deriving from polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The NSC matrix combined with homogeneously distributed MnS nanoparticles crushed from micro-MnS provide fast access of lithium ion/electron and robust structure, leading to remarkable cycling stability (551.6 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 even after 400 cycles) and desirable rate capability (624 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 and around 300 mAh g −1 at 2 A g −1 ). Particularly, the assembled LIB full cell by coupling the anode with LiFePO 4 (LFP) cathode presents an encouragingly cycling retention of 96 % after 100 cycles. This work provides a new possibility for design and industrial implementation of MnS as advanced anode materials for LIBs.