Colloidal Antimony Sulfide Nanoparticles as a High-Performance Anode Material for Li-ion and Na-ion Batteries

To maximize the anodic charge storage capacity of Li-ion and Na-ion batteries (LIBs and SIBs, respectively), the conversion–alloying-type Sb(2)S(3) anode has attracted considerable interest because of its merits of a high theoretical capacity of 946 mAh g(−1) and a suitable anodic lithiation/delithiation voltage window of 0.1–2 V vs. Li(+)/Li. Recent advances in nanostructuring of the Sb(2)S(3) anode provide an effective way of mitigating the challenges of structure conversion and volume expansion upon lithiation/sodiation that severely hinder the Sb(2)S(3) cycling stability. In this context, we report uniformly sized colloidal Sb(2)S(3) nanoparticles (NPs) as a model Sb(2)S(3) anode material for LIBs and SIBs to investigate the effect of the primary particle size on the electrochemical performance of the Sb(2)S(3) anode. We found that compared with microcrystalline Sb(2)S(3), smaller ca. 20–25 nm and ca. 180–200 nm Sb(2)S(3) NPs exhibit enhanced cycling stability as anode materials in both rechargeable LIBs and SIBs. Importantly, for the ca. 20–25 nm Sb(2)S(3) NPs, a high initial Li-ion storage capacity of 742 mAh g(−1) was achieved at a current density of 2.4 A g(−1). At least 55% of this capacity was retained after 1200 cycles, which is among the most stable performance Sb(2)S(3) anodes for LIBs.