Enhanced cyclic stability of SnS microplates with conformal carbon coating derived from ethanol vapor deposition for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract Carbon coated SnS microplates (SnS@C MPs) were prepared via a facile chemical vapor deposition method using SnS2 nanoflakes as precursor and ethanol vapor as carbon source. The carbon coating restrains the growth of SnS during the heat treatment. Furthermore, it improves the electronic conductivity as well as accommodates volume variations of SnS during the sodiation and desodiation processes. Therefore, the rate capability and cycle performance of the SnS@C MPs as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries are remarkably enhanced compared with the bare SnS and the SnS2 precursor. At current densities of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2 A g−1, the optimized SnS@C MPs exhibit stable capacities of 602.9, 532.1, 512.2, 465.9 and 427.2 mAh g−1, respectively. At 1 A g−1, they show a reversible capacity of 528.8 mAh g−1 in the first cycle, and maintain 444.7 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles, with capacity retention of 84.1%. The carbon coating through chemical vapor deposition using ethanol vapor as carbon sources is green, simple and cost-effective, which shows great promise to improve the reversible Na+ storage of electrode materials.