Auxiliary ball milling to prepare WS₂/graphene nanosheets composite for lithium-ion battery anode materials

A novel nano-WS2/graphene nanosheets (GNSs) composite is obtained by ball milling with xylitol as auxiliary agent and high-temperature sintering. Xylitol improves the shear force during ball milling and well overcomes the van der Waals interactions between the interlayer of graphite and WS2. Through high-temperature calcination, GNSs and WS2 nanosheets can form tight interface contact. The produced WS2/GNSs composites can be used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, while maintaining a high reversible specific capacity of 705 mAh center dot g(-1) with the capacity retention of 95% at a current density of 250 mA center dot g(-1) after 200 cycles, mainly because WS2/GNSs composites have a higher Li+ diffusion coefficient of 2.2 x 10(-9) cm(2)center dot s(-1) and a higher specific surface area of 70.10 m(2)center dot g(-1). As a result, the xylitol-assisted ball milling method designed in this work is suitable for extended preparation of peeling of two-dimensional layer materials into nanosheets.