Formation of Stable Phosphorus–Carbon Bond for Enhanced Performance in Black Phosphorus Nanoparticle–Graphite Composite Battery Anodes

High specific capacity battery electrode materials have attracted great research attention. Phosphorus as a low-cost abundant material has a high theoretical specific capacity of 2596 mAh/g with most of its capacity at the discharge potential range of 0.4–1.2 V, suitable as anodes. Although numerous research progress have shown other high capacity anodes such as Si, Ge, Sn, and SnO₂, there are only a few studies on phosphorus anodes despite its high theoretical capacity. Successful applications of phosphorus anodes have been impeded by rapid capacity fading, mainly caused by large volume change (around 300%) upon lithiation and thus loss of electrical contact. Using the conducting allotrope of phosphorus, “black phosphorus” as starting materials, here we fabricated composites of black phosphorus nanoparticle-graphite by mechanochemical reaction in a high energy mechanical milling process. This process produces phosphorus–carbon bonds, which are stable during lithium insertion/extraction, maintaining excellent electrical connection between phosphorus and carbon. We demonstrated high initial discharge capacity of 2786 mAh·g^–1 at 0.2 C and an excellent cycle life of 100 cycles with 80% capacity retention. High specific discharge capacities are maintained at fast C rates (2270, 1750, 1500, and 1240 mAh·g^–1 at C/5, 1, 2, and 4.5 C, respectively)