Enhancing potassium-ion battery performance by defect and interlayer engineering

Defect and interlayer engineering is applied to exploit the large van der Waals gaps of transition metal dichalcogenides for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs). As a demonstrator, MoS₂ nanoflowers with expanded interlayer spacing and defects in the basal planes are used as KIB anodes in the voltage range of 0.5-2.5 V, where an intercalation reaction rather than a conversion reaction takes place to store K-ions in the van der Waals gaps. The nanoflowers show enhanced K-storage performance compared to the defect-free counterpart that has a pristine interlayer spacing. Kinetic analysis verifies that the K-ion diffusion coefficient and surface charge storage are both enhanced in the applied voltage range of the intercalation reaction. The collective effects of expanded interlayer spacing and additionally exposed edges induced by the in-plane defects enable facile K-ion intercalation, rapid K-ion transport and promoted surface K-ion adsorption simultaneously.