Self-polymerized hollow Mo-dopamine complex-induced functional MoSe2/N-doped carbon electrodes with enhanced lithium/sodium storage properties

Abstract

Self-polymerized hollow Mo-dopamine (PDA-Mo) spherical composites are appealing precursors for constructing robust N-doped carbon-encased Mo-containing electrode materials. Here, a method involving facile chemical precipitation combined with vapor selenization processes has been developed to prepare three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical MoSe₂/N-doped carbon microsphere composites. The developed synthetic process eliminates the use of an expensive carbon matrix and toxic reagents, and the preliminary preparation of templates, and is deemed a facile, green, and cost-effective route to fabricate 3D hierarchical architectures. The as-synthesized hierarchical MoSe₂/N-doped carbon microsphere composites are constructed from sheet-like MoSe₂ layers that are encased by amorphous N-doped carbon. As expected, the as-synthesized 3D hierarchical MoSe₂/N-doped carbon microsphere composites have excellent rate capacity (1500 and 600 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹ and 10 A g⁻¹, respectively) and long-life cycling stability (141.7 mA h g⁻¹ remains even after 2000 cycles at 30 A g⁻¹). Besides, the as-synthesized hierarchical MoSe₂/N-doped carbon microsphere composites deliver a high capacity of about 570 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹ when used as sodium-ion battery anode materials. Our work provides a successful approach for fabricating 3D hierarchical architectures applying simple synthetic methods, which could shed some light on future research pertaining to the construction of high-performance electrode materials.