Sodium/Lithium Storage Behavior of Antimony Hollow Nanospheres for Rechargeable Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have come up as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for large-scale applications because of abundant Na storage in the earth’s crust. Antimony (Sb) hollow nanospheres (HNSs) obtained by galvanic replacement were first applied as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries and exhibited superior electrochemical performances with high reversible capacity of 622.2 mAh g–1 at a current density of 50 mA g–1 after 50 cycles, close to the theoretical capacity (660 mAh g–1); even at high current density of 1600 mA g–1, the reversible capacities can also reach 315 mAh g–1. The benefits of this unique structure can also be extended to LIBs, resulting in reversible capacity of 627.3 mAh g–1 at a current density of 100 mAh g–1 after 50 cycles, and at high current density of 1600 mA g–1, the reversible capacity is 435.6 mAhg–1. Thus, these benefits from the Sb HNSs are able to provide a robust architecture for SIBs and LIBs anodes.