Abstract: Designing a highly conductive scaffold with unique function has great significance in elevating the storage properties of molybdenum sulfide (MoS₂) for sodium- and potassium-ion batteries. Herein, we show that forming a three-dimensional (3D) highly conductive dual backbone that consists of titanium nitride nanowires (TiN) coated on 3D carbon fiber (CF) could suppress the poor conductivity of MoS₂. Theoretical calculations predict that both TiN and CF boost the electronic conductivity, while the MoS₂ will promote high ionic adsorption owing to the suitable adsorption energy. The as-prepared CF@TiN/MoS₂, with mass loading up to 12.5 mg cm^-2, achieves a high areal capacity of up to 5.40 mAh cm^-2 under the current density of 0.6 mA cm^-2 for sodium storage. The excellent performance of the hybrid can be attributed to buffer and conductivity enhancer features, allowing Na-ion to directly have contact with the CF@TiN/MoS₂ hybrid. A series of electrochemical analyses including cyclic voltammetry and symmetric cell analyses affirm the significant improvement in transport kinetics. More importantly, the CF@TiN/MoS₂ also achieves a high areal capacity of 3.29 mAh cm^-2 under the current density of 0.3 mA cm^-2 as anode material for potassium ion batteries (PIBs), demonstrating that the scaffold-regulated strategy is a feasible strategy to enhance the kinetics of MoS₂-based anodes for secondary-ion batteries and beyond.

Key words: MoS₂ nanosheets, Flexible conductive TiN nanowires, Kinetics, High areal capacity, Sodium- and potassium-ion batteries