“Rebar-reinforced concrete” carbon nanotubes/carbon black@phosphorus multilevel architecture from one-pot ball milling as anode materials

Abstract Recently, in order to increase the electrical conductivity of the phosphorus-based anode materials and to alleviate the deterioration of the electrochemical performance caused by the volume expansion of red phosphorus, the composite material made of red phosphorus and carbon matrix has become the mainstream route for lithium ion batteries. In this work, we used one-pot ball milling method to synthesize an unique rebar-reinforced concrete structure hybrid of nanosized phosphorus particles, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and carbon black (CNTs/CB@P composites). The carbon nanotubes formed a primary frame network structure and the CB formed a regional secondary network structure in the CNTs/CB@P composites, which makes red phosphorus covered by double network structure. Such a structure greatly improves the conductive network of CNTs/CB@P composites for lithium ion batteries. Furthermore, this one-pot ball milling method was simple, continuous, and much suitable for industrial production. When the ratio of multi-walled carbon nanotubes to carbon black was 3:2, the CNTs/CB@P composites had the cycling performance with a reversible capacity of ~ 474.9 mAh g−1 and a capacity retention of ~ 56.3% after 50 cycles.