Chemically Binding Vanadium Sulfide in Carbon Carriers to Boost Reaction Kinetics for Potassium Storage

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have received widespread interest on account of low redox potential, low price, and high abundance of potassium. However, attributing to the large radius of K+ ions, the structure of electrode material is easily damaged during the potassiation/depotassiation process. Herein, the unique chemical bonding of encapsulating V5.45S8 nanoparticles in N,S codoped multichannel carbon nanofibers (CB-VS@NSCNFs) is designed through electrospinning and in situ vulcanization techniques. The anchoring effect (V–C chemical bonding) of the V5.45S8 nanoparticles with carbon carriers assists in shortening the K+/e– transport path and alleviating the structural changes, which is highlighted to acquire a stable cycle lifespan. Also, codoped multichannel carbon nanofibers provide abundant active sites for pseudocapacitive behavior to achieve fast kinetics. As a synergistic result, when CB-VS@NSCNFs are evaluated as anode material for PIBs, they exhibit a high reversible capacity of 411 mA h g–1 at 0.1 A g–1, decent rate property with a capacity of up to 123 mA h g–1 at 6 A g–1, and good cycling stability of 500 cycles at 1 A g–1.