Multidimensional antimony nanomaterials tailored by electrochemical engineering for advanced sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries

Downsizing the dimensions of materials holds great importance for promoting the alkali-ion storage properties, which is considered to be one of the most efficient methods for improving the cycling stability and rate capability of alloy anodes. Nevertheless, efficient, affordable, and scalable methods to prepare low-dimensional electrode materials are lacking. In this study, we developed a tunable electrochemical strategy for synthesizing multidimensional antimony (Sb) nanomaterials. Depending on different reaction mechanisms in different electrolytes, we fabricated zero-dimensional Sb nanoparticles, two-dimensional (2D) antimonene nanosheets, and a three-dimensional porous Sb network through the electrochemical delamination of bulk Sb in lithium hexafluorophosphate in propylene carbonate, tetraethylammonium hydroxide aqueous solution, and tetraethylammonium hexafluorophosphate in N, N-dimethylformamide, respectively. In the preferred electrolyte, 2D antimonene nanosheets deliver a large sodium storage capacity of 572.5 mAh g −1 after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g −1 and an excellent rate capability of 553.6 mAh g −1 at 5 A g −1 . When used as anode materials for potassium-ion batteries, we obtained a high capacity of 550.3 mAh g −1 after 300 cycles, and observed a high rate capability of 302.3 mAh g −1 at 4 A g −1 . These results provide an easy and tunable strategy for designing high-performance low-dimensional materials for next-generation batteries.