Synergistically boosting reaction kinetics and suppressing polyselenide shuttle effect by TiCT/SbSe film anode in high-performance sodium-ion batteries.

Antimony selenide (SbSe), with rich resources and high electrochemical activity, including in conversion and alloying reactions, has been regarded as an ideal candidate anode material for sodium-ion batteries. However, the severe volume expansion, sluggish kinetics, and polyselenide shuttle of the SbSe-based anode lead to serious pulverization at high current density, restricting its industrialization. Herein, a unique structure of SbSe nanowires uniformly anchored between TiCT (MXene) nanosheets was prepared by the electrostatic self-assembly method. The MXene can impede the volume expansion of SbSe nanowires in the sodiation process. Moreover, the SbSe nanowires can reduce the restacking of TiCT nanosheets and enhance electrolyte accessibility. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations confirm the increased reaction kinetics and better sodium storage capability through the composite of TiCT with SbSe and the high adsorption capability of TiCT to polyselenides. Therefore, the resultant SbSe/TiCT anodes show high rate capability (369.4 mAh/g at 5 A/g) and cycling performance (568.9 and 304.1 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g after 100 cycles and at 1.0 A/g after 500 cycles). More importantly, the full sodium-ion batteries using the SbSe/TiCT anode and NaV(PO)/carbon cathode exhibit high energy/power densities and outstanding cycle performance.