High entropy metal sulfide stabilized by ZIF-8-derived carbon as high-performance anode in lithium ion battery

Multi-component alloys have been considered as alternative anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their much higher capacity than graphite. However, the alloys still suffer from large volume expansion, leading to fast capacity decay. Here, high entropy metal sulfide/carbon nanocomposites ((FeCoNiCuZn)S x /C) were fabricated by the calcination of FeCoNiCuZn high-entropy alloy/ZIF-8 nanocomposites. As an anode for LIBs, the (FeCoNiCuZn)S x /C exhibited superior reversible capacity of 809.5 mAh g -1 with high coulombic efficiency of 99.6% at high current density of 500 mA g -1 after 200 cycles and high rate capacity (up to 1150.2 mAh g -1 and 604.4 mAh g -1 at 0.2 A g -1 and 3 A g -1 , respectively), showing much better performance than (FeCoNiCuZn)S x without ZIF-8 derived carbon. The experimental results show that the excellent electrochemical performance of (FeCoNiCuZn)S x /C is mainly attributed to the presence of ZIF-8 derived conductive carbon skeleton, which enhanced greatly structural stability and electron transfer ability of (FeCoNiCuZn)S x .