The development of lithium-ion batteries with high energy density, high power density and long cycle life is a major demand in world-wide energy field. The Hengxing Ji’s group in the University of Science and Technology of China has been committed to the study on lithium battery anode materials for a long time. With the X-ray absorption experiments performed at the XMCD beamline, they discovered black phosphorous materials as lithium battery anode possessing excellent mass capacity and rate performance, but the edges of the sheets are easily damaged. Based on this and collaboration with Professor Xiangfeng Duan at UCLA, they recently developed high-energy ball milling strategy to obtain a new anode material for the fast-charged lithium-ion battery, in which black phosphorus and graphite nanosheets are arranged side by side. It is revealed that the formation of C-P bonds is the key to improve the electrochemical reaction capability of black phosphorus through the soft X-ray spectroscopy technology at the HLS of NSRL. ^{[Science 370:192-197(2020)]}

^{Figure 2. Structural Sketch (a) and soft x-ray absorption spectrum results (b-c)}