Shell Modulation of Hollow Metal Sulfide Nanocomposite for Stable Potassium Storage at Room and High Temperature

The large size of K-ion makes the pursuit of stable high-capacity anodes for K-ion batteries (KIBs) a formidable challenge, particularly for high temperature KIBs as the electrode instability becomes more aggravated with temperature climbing. Herein, we demonstrate that a hollow ZnS@C nanocomposite (h-ZnS@C) with a precise shell modulation can resist electrode disintegration to enable stable high-capacity potassium storage at room and high temperature. Based on a model electrode, we identify an interesting structure-function correlation of the h-ZnS@C: with an increase in the shell thickness, the cyclability increases while the rate and capacity decrease, shedding light on the design of high-performance h-ZnS@C anodes via engineering the shell thickness. Typically, the h-ZnS@C anode with a shell thickness of 60 nm can deliver an impressive comprehensive performance at room temperature; the h-ZnS@C with shell thickness increasing to 75 nm can achieve an extraordinary stability (88.6 % capacity retention over 450 cycles) with a high capacity (450 mAh g^-1) and a superb rate even at an extreme temperature of 60 °C, which is much superior than those reported anodes. This contribution envisions new perspectives on rational design of functional metal sulfides composite toward high-performance KIBs with insights into the significant structure-function correlation.