Sulfur-Deficient Porous SnS(2−x) Microflowers as Superior Anode for Alkaline Ion Batteries

SnS(2) as a high energy anode material has attracted extensive research interest recently. However, the fast capacity decay and low rate performance in alkaline-ion batteries associated with repeated volume variation and low electrical conductivity plague them from practical application. Herein, we propose a facile method to solve this problem by synthesizing porous SnS(2) microflowers with in-situ formed sulfur vacancies. The flexible porous nanosheets in the three-dimensional flower-like nanostructure provide facile strain relaxation to avoid stress concentration during the volume changes. Rich sulfur vacancies and porous structure enable the fast and efficient electron transport. The porous SnS(2−x) microflowers exhibit outstanding performance for lithium ion battery in terms of high capacity (1375 mAh g(−1) at 100 mA g(−1)) and outstanding rate capability (827 mA h g(−1) at high rate of 2 A g(−1)). For sodium ion battery, a high capacity (~522 mAh g(−1)) can be achieved at 5 A g(−1) after 200 cycles for SnS(2−x) microflowers. The rational design in nanostructures, as well as the chemical compositions, might create new opportunities in designing the new architecture for highly efficient energy storage devices.