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

Five methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr3) 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 MAPbBr3 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 MAPbBr3 anodes showed size-dependent electrochemical performance. More importantly, this is the first report stating that excellent cycling stability for 1000 cycles of MAPbBr3 anodes composed of small sized samples should be attributed to the small size, low defect concentration structure and good interface charge transfer.