Abstract:
Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been regarded as an ideal alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to the abundant and widely distributed sources of sodium. Metal sulfides (MSs), owing their high theoretical capacity and favorable redox reversibility, are highly promising anode candidates for SIBs. However, pure metal sulfides are limited in practical application and development due to volume expansion and low conductivity during the removal and embedding of sodium ions. To enhance the sodium-storage electrochemical performance of metal sulfides, this study uses ice powder as a three-dimensional gel matrix and a hard carbon source, employing a sol-gel in-situ co-precipitation and pyrolysis carbonization process to prepare hard carbon-coated bimetallic sulfide Co
8FeS
8 composite materials. By regulating the Co/Fe molar ratio and the carbonization temperature, the optimal sample Co
8FeS
8@HC21-800 was identified. Structural characterization indicates that this material forms a core-shell structure with C-S covalent bonding, exhibits a hierarchical mesoporous-microporous structure, and the bimetallic doping introduces mixed valence states to enhance the conductivity. Electrochemical tests show that it has an initial discharge specific capacity of 875.66 mAh g
−1 at 0.1 A g
−1, a capacity retention of 90.21 % after 120 cycles, and still maintains 490.14 mAh g
−1 at 5 A g
−1, with low charge transfer resistance and fast sodiumion diffusion. The synergistic effect of bimetallic doping and carbon coating significantly improves the sodium storage capacity, cycling stability, and rate capability, providing a new insight for the development of high-performance anode materials for sodium-ion batteries.