Crumpled Nitrogen-Doped Graphene-Wrapped Phosphorus Composite as a Promising Anode for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Red phosphorus (P) has recently gained wide attention because of the high theoretical capacity of 2596 mA h/g, which has been regarded as promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the actual application of red P in LIBs is hampered by the huge expansion of volume and low electronic conductivity. Herein, we design a kind of red phosphorus/crumpled nitrogen-doped graphene (P/CNG) nanocomposites with high capacity density and great rate performance as anode material for LIBs. This anode material was rationally fabricated through the scalable ball-milling method. The nanocomposite structure of P/CNG improves the electron conductivity and alleviates volume change of raw red P because of the three-dimension (3D) framework, massive defects and active sites of CNG sheets. As expected, the P/CNG composite shows excellent electrochemical performances, including high capacity (2522.6 mA h/g at 130 mA/g), remarkable rate capability (1340.5 mA h/g at 3900 mA/g), and great cyclability (1470.1 mA h/g at 1300 mA/g for 300 cycles). This work may provide a broad prospect for a great rate performance of P-based anode material for LIBs.