Interfacial coupling of MoS₂/MoO₃ hierarchical heterostructures as superior anodes for high-performance lithium-ion battery

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), an outstanding two-dimensional (2D) structural block, is considered as a hopeful candidate for the lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) anode. However, the stacked and breakable 2D layered structure restricts its rate and cycling performance. Herein, a novel architecture of spherical nanoflower MoS₂/MoO₃ heterostructures is rationally designed for LIBs. The hierarchical nanoflower morphology guarantees the structural superiority to buffer the volume expansion and the construction of heterostructures increases the adsorption energy of Li ions. Theoretical researches demonstrate that the formation of built-in electric field between MoS₂ and MoO₃ significantly enhances the interfacial electron transport and the ion diffusion rate, which can be conducive to accelerate Li⁺ insertion/extraction in designed heterostructures. As expected, the ultrahigh capacity (864.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹) and high-rate capability (353.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 2.0 A g⁻¹) are acquired in the LIBs composed of as-prepared MoS₂/MoO₃ anodes. More importantly, MoS₂/MoO₃ anode shows a high reversible capacity of 509.3 mAh g⁻¹ after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹, which also exhibits outstanding cycling performance with the capacity of 335.9 mAh g⁻¹ after 3000 cycles at 2.0 A g⁻¹. This study provides a new paradigm for promoting LIBs performance by constructing heterostructures.