Synthesis of Binder-Free, Low-Resistant Randomly Orientated Nanorod/Sheet ZnS–MoS2 as Electrode Materials for Portable Energy Storage Applications

Abstract

The scientific community needs to conduct research on novel electrodes for portable energy storage (PES) devices like supercapacitors (S–Cs) and lithium-ion batteries (Li-ion-Bs) to overcome energy crises, especially in rural areas where no electrical poles are available. Herein, the nanostructured MoS₂ and ZnS–MoS₂ E-Ms consisting of nanoparticles/rods/sheets (N-Ps-Rs-Ss) are deposited on hierarchical nickel foam by a homemade chemical vapor deposition (H-M CVD) route. The X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the formation of polycrystalline films growing along various orientations, whereas the field-emission scanning electron microscope analysis confirms the formation of N-Ps-Rs-Ss. The change in structural and microstructural parameters indicates the existence of defects improving the energy storage ability of the deposited ZnS–MoS₂@Ni–F electrodes. The specific capacitances of MoS₂@Ni–F and ZnS–MoS₂@Ni–F electrodes are found to be 1763 and 3565 F/g at 0.5 mV/s and 1451 and 3032 F/g at 1 A/g, respectively. The growing behavior of impedance graphs indicates their capacitive nature; however, the shifting of impedance curves toward y-axis indicates that the increasing diffusion rates due to the formation of nanostructures of ZnS–MoS₂ results in low impedance. An excellent energy storage performance, minimum capacity fading, and improved electrical conductivity of the deposited E-Ms are due to the combined contributions of the electrical double layer and pseudocapacitor nature, which is again confirmed by theoretical Dunn’s model. The absence of charge transfer resistance and good capacitance retention (95%) even after 10,000 cycles indicates that the deposited E-Ms are better for PES devices like S–Cs and Li-ion-Bs than MoS₂ E-Ms. The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor device exhibited the maximum specific capacitance = 996 F/g, energy density = 354–285 W h/kg, power density = 2400–24,000 W/kg, capacitance retention = 95% and Coulombic efficiency = 100% even after a long charging–discharging of 10,000 cycles.