MOF-derived hollow Co₄S₃/C nanosheet arrays grown on carbon cloth as the anode for high-performance Li-ion batteries

Cobalt sulfide (Co4S3) is considered one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries owing to its high specific capacity. However, some disadvantages, such as poor electrical conductivity and volume expansion, lead to low rate capability and may hinder its practical applications. Herein, we firstly fabricated leaf-like hollow Co4S3/C nanosheet arrays growing on carbon cloth (h-Co4S3/C NA@CC) by a facile solution method combined with carbonization, sulfidation and annealing treatments. The carbon coated leaf-like nanosheet structure can facilitate the electron transfer and shorten the ion transfer path, while the hollow space inside Co4S3 can buffer the volume variation. As the anode for LIBs, h-Co4S3/C NA@CC demonstrates an impressive rate capability (654.3 mA h g-1 at 1 A g-1 and 394.1 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1), and an excellent cycling stability (720 mA h g-1 at 1 A g-1 after 200 cycles and 79 capacity retention at 2 A g-1 after 500 cycles).