Morphological and chemical tuning of lead halide perovskite mesocrystals as long-life anode materials in lithium-ion batteries

Five methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr ₃ ) microcrystals with different sizes (∼2.9 mm, ∼2.4 mm, ∼1.9 mm, ∼1.5 mm and ∼1.2 mm), were successfully designed using a facile solvothermal method through tuning the concentration of Pb precursors. The morphology, micro/nanostructure, and chemical composition of these MAPbBr ₃ crystals are characterized in detail by SEM, XPS, FTIR, PL, TG/DSC, and Hall measurements. The influences of the microstructures involving the defect and grain boundaries on the performance evolution for Li-ion batteries were studied. 3 samples with big, medium, and small sizes (2.9, 1.9 and 1.2 mm) were selected to investigate their electrochemical performance. Interestingly, the MAPbBr ₃ anodes showed size-dependent electrochemical performance. More importantly, this is the first report stating that excellent cycling stability for 1000 cycles of MAPbBr ₃ anodes composed of small sized samples should be attributed to the small size, low defect concentration structure and good interface charge transfer.