A phosphorus/N-doped carbon nanofiber composite as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been attracting intensive attention at present as the most promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries in large-scale electrical energy storage applications, due to the low-cost and natural abundance of sodium. Elemental phosphorus (P) is a very promising anode material for SIBs, with the highest theoretical capacity of 2596 mA h g-1. Recently, there have been many efforts devoted to phosphorus anode materials for SIBs. As pure red phosphorus cannot react with Na reversibly, many attempts to prepare composite materials containing phosphorus have been reported. Here, we report the facile preparation of a red phosphorus/N-doped carbon nanofiber composite (P/NCF) that can deliver a reversible capacity of 731 mA h g-1 in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), with a capacity retention of 57.3% over 55 cycles. Our results suggest that it would be a promising anode candidate for SIBs with a high capacity and low cost.