Ultrafast-Loaded Nickel Sulfide on Vertical Graphene Enabled by Joule Heating for Enhanced Lithium Metal Batteries

Xinyi Shan; Jiaqi Zhu; Zhong Qiu; Ping Liu; Yu Zhong; Xueer Xu; Xinping He; Yongqi Zhang; Jiangping Tu; Yang Xia; Chen Wang; Wangjun Wan; Minghua Chen; Xinqi Liang; Xinhui Xia; Wenkui Zhang

doi:10.1002/smll.202401491

Ultrafast-Loaded Nickel Sulfide on Vertical Graphene Enabled by Joule Heating for Enhanced Lithium Metal Batteries

Small. 2024 May 15:e2401491. doi: 10.1002/smll.202401491. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xinyi Shan¹, Jiaqi Zhu², Zhong Qiu^{1

3}, Ping Liu², Yu Zhong², Xueer Xu², Xinping He¹, Yongqi Zhang³, Jiangping Tu², Yang Xia¹, Chen Wang⁴, Wangjun Wan⁴, Minghua Chen⁵, Xinqi Liang^{3

5}, Xinhui Xia^{1

2}, Wenkui Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, P. R. China.
² School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
³ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Science, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, 313000, P. R. China.
⁴ Zhejiang Academy of Science and Technology for Inspection & Quarantine, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, 311215, P. R. China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Engineering Dielectric and Applications (Ministry of Education), School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, 150080, P. R. China.

PMID: 38751305
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202401491

Abstract

The design and fabrication of a lithiophilic skeleton are highly important for constructing advanced Li metal anodes. In this work, a new lithiophilic skeleton is reported by planting metal sulfides (e.g., Ni₃S₂) on vertical graphene (VG) via a facile ultrafast Joule heating (UJH) method, which facilitates the homogeneous distribution of lithiophilic sites on carbon cloth (CC) supported VG substrate with firm bonding. Ni₃S₂ nanoparticles are homogeneously anchored on the optimized skeleton as CC/VG@Ni₃S₂, which ensures high conductivity and uniform deposition of Li metal with non-dendrites. By means of systematic electrochemical characterizations, the symmetric cells coupled with CC/VG@Ni₃S₂ deliver a steady long-term cycle within 14 mV overpotential for 1800 h (900 cycles) at 1 mA cm^-2 and 1 mAh cm^-2. Meanwhile, the designed CC/VG@Ni₃S₂-Li||LFP full cell shows notable electrochemical performance with a capacity retention of 92.44% at 0.5 C after 500 cycles and exceptional rate performance. This novel synthesis strategy for metal sulfides on hierarchical carbon-based materials sheds new light on the development of high-performance lithium metal batteries (LMBs).

Keywords: Li metal batteries; anodes; metal sulfides; ultrafast joule heating.

Abstract

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