Electrochemical exfoliation of porous antimonene as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Porous antimony has attracted wide attention in the area of energy storage as it can accommodate large volume change and facilitate Na+ ions diffusion. Herein, stable porous antimonene sheets with mesopores ranging from 2 to 50 nm have successfully fabricated through electrochemical exfoliation of layered bulk antimony rod in tetramethylammonium hydroxide aqueous solution with the aid of large TMA+ cations insertion and strong alkaline electrolyte environment. When utilized as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, the as-exfoliated porous antimonene can deliver a high specific capacity of 569.1 mAh g−1 upon 200 cycles at 100 mA g−1, and it can still keep a high capacity of 277.8 mAh g−1 even at fast charge/discharge rate of 5000 mA g−1.