Electrical, Mechanical, and Capacity Percolation Leads to High-Performance MoS<inf>2</inf>/Nanotube Composite Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes

Abstract

Advances in lithium ion batteries would facilitate technological developments in areas from electrical vehicles to mobile communications. While 2-dimensional systems like MoS2 are promising electrode materials due to their potentially high capacity, their poor rate-capability and low cycle-stability are severe handicaps. Here we study the electrical, mechanical and lithium storage properties of solution-processed MoS2/carbon nanotube anodes. Nanotube addition gives up to ×1010 and ×40 increases in electrical conductivity and mechanical toughness respectively. The increased conductivity results in up to a ×100 capacity enhancement to ~1200 mAh/g (~3000 mAh/cm3) at 0.1 A/g, while the improved toughness significantly boosts cycle stability. Composites with 20 wt% nanotubes combined high reversible capacity with excellent cycling stability (e.g. ~950 mAh/g after 500 cycles at 2 A/g) and high-rate capability (~600 mAh/g at 20 A/g). The conductivity, toughness and capacity scaled with nanotube content according to percolation theory while the stability increased sharply at the mechanical percolation threshold. We believe the improvements in conductivity and toughness obtained after addition of nanotubes can be transferred to other electrode materials such as silicon nanoparticles.