LAUSR

Abstract Herein, a spray pyrolysis strategy for synthesizing clustered metal chalcogenides embedded in the hollow N-doped carbon framework is reported. After thermally induced sulfurization processes, ZnS/CoS/CoS2 @N-doped carbon was successfully prepared as a novel anode for lithium-ion battery. Electrochemical evaluation revealed that the mixture exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 1273.8 mA h g−1 reversible capacity of 622.7 mA h g−1 in the 200th cycle at a current density of 100 mA g−1. In addition, ZnS/CoS/CoS2@N-doped carbon hybrid composites also showed excellent rate capability (586.8, 492.2, 399.3 and 293.6 mA h g−1 at 200, 500, 1000 and 2000 mA g−1, respectively). Such findings provide a new solution to address volume expansion/shrinkage during the lithiation/delithiation cycles, which holds a great future for the design and manufacturing of high performance lithium-ion batteries.