Transition metal sulfides as anode materials for high-performance lithium storage

Driven by the globalization policy to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and the urgent need of clean energy, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been continuously pushed toward higher energy density. In this pursuit, transition metal sulfides (TMSs) stand out for their high storage capacity, yet their intrinsic limitations on large volumetric strain and poor electric transport impede their adoption in commercial batteries. This review focuses on three earth-abundant TMS families (copper, zinc and manganese sulfides), and systematically evaluates the modification strategies developed over the past few years. Carbon-confined architectures such as core-shell, MXene hybrids and heteroatom-doped frameworks, consistently reliably stabilizes cycling across all three materials, and heterointerface engineering markedly boosts rate capability especially for zinc sulfides. Defect control through sulfur vacancies just opens a pathway to raise native conductivity, though it remains at an early stage of development. Apart from multi-strategy combinations, this review also surveys ternary/quaternary chalcogenides (e.g. Cu₂ZnSnS₄) and binder-free electrode fabrication including flame spray pyrolysis and direct growth on current collectors as emerging directions. Despite it is still existing hurdles like low initial Coulombic efficiency, unclear phase transition mechanisms and gap between lab and practical applications, design principles drawn from these three sulfides provide an adaptable blueprint to develop high-performance, cost-effective conversion anodes for next-generation LIBs.