Molten salt modulation of porous MoP@PC nanosheets as an ultra-stable anode for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

MoP, which possesses good conductivity and electrochemical activity, presents outstanding electrochemical performance when serving as an anode material for LIBs, yet it still suffers from rapid capacity attenuation because of its large volume change and inferior diffusion kinetics. Here, we employed a facile and scalable molten salt method to fabricate in situ sheet-like porous P-doped carbon-supported MoP nanoparticles (MoP@PC). The porous structure exhibits a high specific active surface area, which exposes more active sites and facilitates effective contact between the electrolyte and molybdenum phosphide, thereby limiting irreversible volume changes after electrochemical reactions and prolonging the battery cycle life. Compared with previous methods, this synthetic route avoids the use of toxic phosphorus sources and acids, which is green and environmentally friendly, and the reaction conditions can be adjusted, which is easy to be promoted. Thus, the MoP@PC cathode could achieve a capacity of 306 mA h g⁻¹ at a high current density of 10 A g⁻¹ and could run for 3500 cycles with a reduced decay rate. This work demonstrates a successful method for designing anode materials for LIBs.