Amorphous phosphorus-carbon nanotube hybrid anode with ultralong cycle life and high-rate capability for lithium-ion battery

The commercial lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) cannot satisfy the drastically increased demand for energy for the limited theoretical capacity density of graphite anode. It is urgent to develop high capacity anode material for high-energy-density batteries. Here, we report a novel phosphorus-carbon nanotube (P-CNT) hybrid as a high-capacity anode for LIBs. This hybrid is obtained via a ball-milling with red P and CNT, in which bulk P and CNT are simultaneous grounded into an overview of nanoscale particles and uniformly distributed in the hybrid. Moreover, the P-O-C chemical bond is formed between P and CNT upon ball-milling, which enables an intimate and robust contact between P and CNT, and thus enhances the overall electrical conductivity and the endurance capability of the P-CNT hybrid employed to heighten the performance during cycling of LIBs. Benefiting from this unique nanostructure with a chemical bond, P-CNT hybrid anode with the high initial Coulombic efficiency of 86.67% and good capacity (2252 mAh/g for first cycle and 1844 mAh/g for 300 cycles) is achieved. This facile and scalable synthesis simple approach and unique nanostructure can be potentially applied to other P-based high-performance anode materials for LIBs.