Impact of CO2 activation on the structure, composition, and performance of Sb/C nanohybrid lithium/sodium-ion battery anodes

Suzhe Liang; Ya-Jun Cheng; Xiaoyan Wang; Zhuijun Xu; Liujia Ma; Hewei Xu; Qing Ji; Xiuxia Zuo; Peter Müller-Buschbaum; Yonggao Xia

doi:10.1039/d1na00008j

Impact of CO₂ activation on the structure, composition, and performance of Sb/C nanohybrid lithium/sodium-ion battery anodes

Nanoscale Adv. 2021 Jan 28;3(7):1942-1953. doi: 10.1039/d1na00008j. eCollection 2021 Apr 6.

Authors

Suzhe Liang^{1

2}, Ya-Jun Cheng^{1

3}, Xiaoyan Wang¹, Zhuijun Xu^{1

4}, Liujia Ma^{1

5}, Hewei Xu¹, Qing Ji^{1

6}, Xiuxia Zuo¹, Peter Müller-Buschbaum^{2

7}, Yonggao Xia^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1219 Zhongguan West Rd Ningbo Zhejiang Province 315201 P. R. China chengyj@nimte.ac.cn xiayg@nimte.ac.cn.
² Physik-Department, Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle Materialien, Technische Universität München James-Franck-Str. 1 85748 Garching Germany.
³ Department of Materials, University of Oxford Parks Rd OX1 3PH Oxford UK.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 19A Yuquan Rd, Shijingshan District Beijing 100049 P. R. China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Tianjin Polytechnic University Tianjin 300387 P. R. China.
⁶ The University of Nottingham Ningbo China 199 Taikang East Rd Ningbo Zhejiang Province 315100 P. R. China.
⁷ Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München Lichtenbergstr. 1 85748 Garching Germany.
⁸ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 19A Yuquan Rd, Shijingshan District Beijing 100049 P. R. China.

Abstract

Antimony (Sb) has been regarded as one of the most promising anode materials for both lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and attracted much attention in recent years. Alleviating the volumetric effect of Sb during charge and discharge processes is the key point to promote Sb-based anodes to practical applications. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) activation is applied to improve the rate performance of the Sb/C nanohybrid anodes caused by the limited diffusion of Li/Na ions in excessive carbon components. Based on the reaction between CO₂ and carbon, CO₂ activation can not only reduce the excess carbon content of the Sb/C nanohybrid but also create abundant mesopores inside the carbon matrix, leading to enhanced rate performance. Additionally, CO₂ activation is also a fast and facile method, which is perfectly suitable for the fabrication system we proposed. As a result, after CO₂ activation, the average capacity of the Sb/C nanohybrid LIB anode is increased by about 18 times (from 9 mA h g^-1 to 160 mA h g^-1) at a current density of 3300 mA g^-1. Moreover, the application of the CO₂-activated Sb/C nanohybrid as a SIB anode is also demonstrated, showing good electrochemical performance.