Integrating lithiation and metal dopants in Sb2S3 nanoneedles for energy storage applications

Abstract We present an approach to improve the electrochemical performance by simultaneously integrating metal dopants, lithiation process and controlled morphology by surfactant free hydrothermal method on antimony sulphide Sb2S3 (SS) nano-structures. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) study confirmed the formation of SS and metal doped SS with orthorhombic crystalline phase and few secondary phases due to metal dopant impurity. The inclusion of metal dopant manipulates the self-assembly of SS nanorods, leading to a dense packed structure as affirmed from the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images. Among the added dopants, the lithiated graphene doped Sb2S3 (LGSS) revealed the improved capacitive controlled charge storage mechanism due to the absence of secondary phase impurity, high electrical conductivity σ, good surface adherence and modification thus, forming a closed cocoon-like morphology, and improved electrode-electrolyte contact. The above features raised the specific capacitance CS of LGSS (704 Fg-1) by six times greater than the pure SS (111 Fg-1) anode material at scan rate 10 mVs−1. The significance of lithiation improved the CS value to 323 Fg-1 while integrating with the graphene dopant, the CS value gets doubled.