Issue 7, 2016

Blockage of ultrafast and directional diffusion of Li atoms on phosphorene with intrinsic defects

Abstract

The diffusion of Li in electrode materials is a key factor for the charging/discharging rate capacity of a Li-ion battery (LIB). Recently, two-dimensional phosphorene has been proposed as a very promising electrode material due to its ultrafast and directional lithium diffusion, as well as large energy capacity. Herein, on the basis of density functional theory, we report that intrinsic point defects, including vacancy and stone–wales defects, will block the directional ultrafast diffusion of lithium in phosphorene. On the defect-free phosphorene, diffusion of Li along the zig-zag lattice direction is 1.6 billion times faster than along the armchair lattice direction, and 260 times faster than that in graphite. After introducing intrinsic vacancy and stone–wales defect, the diffusion energy barrier of Li along the zig-zag lattice direction increases sharply to the range of 0.17–0.49 eV, which blocks the ultrafast migration of lithium along the zig-zag lattice direction. Moreover, the open circuit voltage increases with the emergence of defects, which is not suitable for anode materials. In addition, the formation energies of the defects in phosphorene are considerably lower than those in graphene and silicene sheet; therefore, it is highly important to generate defect-free phosphorene for LIB applications.

Graphical abstract: Blockage of ultrafast and directional diffusion of Li atoms on phosphorene with intrinsic defects

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Oct 2015
Accepted
07 Jan 2016
First published
08 Jan 2016

Nanoscale, 2016,8, 4001-4006

Author version available

Blockage of ultrafast and directional diffusion of Li atoms on phosphorene with intrinsic defects

R. Zhang, X. Wu and J. Yang, Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 4001 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR06856H

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