Chemically deposited Sb2Se3 anode for thin film lithium batteries

Abstract

Sb2Se3, an important member of V2VI 3 compound semiconductor, is a layer-structured semiconductor of orthorhombic crystal structure which exhibits good photo-voltaic properties and high thermoelectric power (TEP) which makes it to possess promising applications in photo-chemical devices, optical and thermoelectric cooling devices, decorative coatings and solar selective. However, there is no report on the electrochemical properties of Sb2Se3 as thin film anode in rechargeable lithium battery. Here first time we report that, Sb 2Se3 thin film has been successfully fabricated by Arrested Precipitation Technique (APT) which is a simple and cost effective method to deposit thin film and has the ability to control chemical composition. The films were investigated for its electrochemistry with lithium. The capacities of Sb2Se3 /Li cells cycled between 0.1 V to 2.5V were measured for first 100 cycles. The electrochemical behavior, structure, composition and morphology of Sb2Se3 thin films before and after cycling were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The motivation of this work is to explore the possibility of using Sb2Se3 as anode material for thin film lithium batteries and to elucidate its electrochemical reaction mechanism with lithium. Here we also report the reaction mechanism includes both alloying/dealloying reaction of Sb and selenylation /reduction reaction between nanocrystalline Sb2Se3 and Sb. Nano-sized metal Sb particles formed after dealloying process should play an important role in enhancing its electrochemical activity. Sb2Se3 has high reversible capacity and good cycle performance, which makes it potential anode material for future lithium-ion batteries. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.