Highly Reversible Sodiation/Desodiation from a Carbon-Sandwiched SnS2 Nanosheet Anode for Sodium Ion Batteries.

The further improvement of sodium ion batteries requires the elucidation of the mechanisms pertaining to reversibility, which allows the novel design of the electrode structure. Here, through a hydrogel-embedding method, we are able to confine the growth of few-layer SnS2 nanosheets between a nitrogen- and sulfur-doped carbon nanotube (NS-CNT) and amorphous carbon. The obtained carbon-sandwiched SnS2 nanosheets demonstrate excellent sodium storage properties. In operando small-angle X-ray scattering combined with the ex situ X-ray absorption near edge spectra reveal that the redox reactions between SnS2/NS-CNT and the sodium ion are highly reversible. On the contrary, the nanostructure evolution is found to be irreversible, in which the SnS2 nanosheets collapse, followed by the regeneration of SnS2 nanoparticles. This work provides operando insights into the chemical environment evolution and structure change of SnS2-based anodes, elucidating its reversible reaction mechanism, and illustrates the significance of engineered carbon support in ensuring the electrode structure stability.