Ultrafine nanoparticles assembled Mo2C nanoplates as promising anode materials for sodium ion batteries with excellent performance

•The Mo2C nanoplates were synthesized by using an amine-metal oxide as the precursor.•The Mo2C nanoplates are uniformly assembled by ultrafine nanoparticles.•The Mo2C nanoplates exhibit a favorable Na-storage performance.

The presented work designs a facile strategy to prepare Mo2C nanoplates assembled by ultrafine nanoparticles with amine-metal oxide as the precursor. When served as anode material for sodium ion batteries, the resultant material exhibits excellent sodium storage properties in terms of long term cycling stability and high rate capability. In details, the Mo2C electrode delivers a reversible capacity of 90.8 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1 after 400 cycles and a high rate capability of 93.7 and 64.1 mA h g−1 at 0.5 and 1 A g−1, respectively, which could be attributed to the highly exposed active sites of Mo2C nanoplates and intimate connection between Mo2C nanoplates. Furthermore, the diffusion coefficients of the sodium ions based on the EIS measurement have been calculated in the range of 10−12-10−9 cm2 s−1, revealing an excellent diffusion mobility for Na atoms in the Mo2C nanoplates. This study demonstrates that the Mo2C is a promising anode material for sodium ion batteries.