Amorphous carbon coated SnO nanohseets on hard carbon hollow spheres to boost potassium storage with high surface capacitive contributions.

Potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) have becoming a prospective energy storage technique, due to the abundant potassium resources in the earth crust, approximate redox potential and similar electrochemical behavior of potassium and lithium. However, the insufficient capacity, poor stability and volume expansion of electrode materials during charge and discharge are main factors restricting the further development of KIBs. This work reports an amorphous carbon coated SnO nanohseets on hard carbon hollow spheres (AC/SnO@HCHS) anode with enhanced potassium storage performance. The HCHS acts as a carrier for SnO nanosheets, providing high electrical conductivity and stable skeleton. The self-assembled SnO nanosheets with high surface area ensures sufficient contact with the electrolyte. Amorphous carbon wrapping can not only relieve SnO volume expansion but also provide surface-induced capacitive capacity. As a consequence, the AC/SnO@HCHS anode presents excellent potassium-ion storage performance with high discharge capacity of 346 mAh g at 0.1 A g over 200 cycles, ultra-long cycling lifetime and outstanding rate capability (236 mAh g at 1 A g over 1000 cycles).