City Research Online

Abstract

Simultaneously achieving high gravimetric capacitance and volumetric capacitance remains as a major challenge in the development of supercapacitor electrode materials. A class of hollow carbon nano bowls (HCNBs) with a unique semi-concave geometry has been synthesized by a facile template method. The HCNBs can serve as a nanoreactor for the in-situ space-confined growth of ultra-small size, few layer two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets. When used as the electrode materials for supercapacitors, the MoS2 nanosheets inside HCNBs named MoS2@HCNBs demonstrated outstanding gravimetric capacitance (560 F g−1 at 0.2 A g−1) and volumetric capacitance (874 F cm−3) at the same time. The cycling performance of MoS2@HCNBs (94.4% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles) is also much higher than HCNB@MoS2 in which the surfaces of HCNBs were covered by the 2D MoS2 nanosheets. Several factors have been leading to the boosted performances and the mechanisms have been analyzed. The HCNBs with high surface area, developed porosity and ultrathin carbon shells promote the rapid electrolyte penetration and provide a conductive pathway for excellent ion and electron transport. The ultra-small few layer MoS2 nanosheets inside the HCNBs help to induce extra electrochemical double-layer capacitance as well as higher pseudocapacitance. More importantly, the semi-concave HCNBs can protect the structural stability of MoS2 nanosheets and contribute an enhanced packing density to further improve the volumetric capacitance of the hybrid MoS2@HCNBs.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This material is excerpted from a work that was published in ACS Applied Nano Materials, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.0c00924
Publisher Keywords:	supercapacitors, molybdenum disulfide MoS2, carbon nano bowls, gravimetric capacitance, volumetric capacitance
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics Q Science > QD Chemistry T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

Export

Downloads