Multichannel red phosphorus with a nanoporous architecture: A novel anode material for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract Red phosphorus (RP) has recently been considered as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries owing to its high theoretical capacity (2596 mA h g−1). Even though it possesses high capacity, it has the major drawback of low electronic conductivity and severe volume expansion during charging/discharging. Electrode materials with multichannel RP nanoporous (MRPN) architectures have been prepared via a facile solvothermal method. These anode active materials are in the range of 50–100 nm. The MRPN-3 shows an improved discharge capacity of 1814 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at a current density of 200 mA g−1. Furthermore, it exhibits an admirable performance at a high current density, providing excellent long-term cyclability. In this paper, we show that electrode materials with hollow nanoporous architectures offer several advantages, such as providing an efficient electron/ion transport network, buffering the volume expansion of RP nanoparticles, and enabling superior kinetics of efficient sodium-ion storage.