Cobalt Disulfide Nanoparticles Embedded in Porous Carbonaceous Micro-Polyhedrons Interlinked by Carbon Nanotubes for Superior Lithium and Sodium Storage

Transition metal sulfides are appealing electrode materials for lithium and sodium batteries owing to their high theoretical capacity. However, they are commonly characterized by rather poor cycling stability and low rate capability. Herein, we investigate CoS2, serving as a model compound. We synthesized a porous CoS2/C micro-polyhedron composite entangled in a carbon-nanotube-based network (CoS2-C/CNT), starting from zeolitic imidazolate frameworks-67 as a single precursor. Following an efficient two-step synthesis strategy, the obtained CoS2 nanoparticles are uniformly embedded in porous carbonaceous micro-polyhedrons, interwoven with CNTs to ensure high electronic conductivity. The CoS2-C/CNT nanocomposite provides excellent bifunctional energy storage performance, delivering 1030 mAh g–1 after 120 cycles and 403 mAh g–1 after 200 cycles (at 100 mA g–1) as electrode for lithium-ion (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), respectively. In addition to these high capacities, the electrodes show outstanding rate capability and excellent long-term cycling stability with a capacity retention of 80% after 500 cycles for LIBs and 90% after 200 cycles for SIBs. In situ X-ray diffraction reveals a significant contribution of the partially graphitized carbon to the lithium and at least in part also for the sodium storage and the report of a two-step conversion reaction mechanism of CoS2, eventually forming metallic Co and Li2S/Na2S. Particularly the lithium storage capability at elevated (dis-)charge rates, however, appears to be substantially pseudocapacitive, thus benefiting from the highly porous nature of the nanocomposite.