Bismuth nanorods confined in hollow carbon structures for high performance sodium-and potassium-ion batteries

Bismuth has drawn widespread attention as a prospective alloying-type anode for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)and potassium-ion batteries(PIBs)due to its large volumetric capacity.However,such material encounters drastic particle pulverization and overgrowth of solid-electrolyte interphase(SEI)upon repeated(de)alloying,thus causing poor rate and cycling degradation.Herein,we report a unique structure design with bismuth nanorods confined in hollow N,S-codoped carbon nanotubes(Bi@NS-C)fabricated by a solvothermal method and in-situ thermal reduction.Ex-situ SEM observations confirm that such a design can significantly suppress the size fining of Bi nanorods,thus inhibiting the particle pulverization and repeated SEI growth upon charging/discharging.The as achieved Bi@NS-C demonstrates outstanding rate capability for SIBs(96.5%capacity retention at 30 A g^(-1) vs.1 A g^(-1)),and a record high rate performance for PIBs(399.5 m Ah g^(-1)@20 A g^(-1)).Notably,the as constructed full cell(Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)@C|Bi@NS-C)demonstrates impressive performance with a high energy density of 219.8 W h kg^(-1) and a high-power density of 6443.3 W kg^(-1)(based on the total mass of active materials on both electrodes),outperforming the state-of-the-art literature.