Nanocomb Architecture Design Using Germanium Selenide as High-Performance Lithium Storage Material

Abstract

A key to improve the electrochemical performance of anode materials is to exploit the rational nanostructure designing beneficial for structural toughness and high rate capability. As a nanostructure design in accordance with this criterion, we introduced GeSe nanocomb architecture with well-developed nanocomb teeth on the backbone. In this unique nanocomb architecture, the free space between nanocomb teeth effectively alleviates tremendous volume expansion during lithiation, and anisotropic structure with a short Li+ diffusion length of tens of nanometer scale guarantees the favorable lithiation/delithiation kinetics. These structural advantages of GeSe nanocomb architecture lead to significantly improved electrochemical performance compared to the GeSe nanopowder counterpart. This GeSe nanocomb architecture exhibits electrochemical performance with the reversible capacity of 726 mA.h.g(-1), showing superior capacity retention of 89% even after 1000 cycles at 1.0 C (1.01 A.g(-1)). © 2016 American Chemical Society