Heterostructure NiS2/NiCo2S4 nanosheets array on carbon nanotubes sponge electrode with high specific capacitance for supercapacitors

Abstract Nickel cobalt sulfur is attracting more attention due to its great electrical conductivity and high specific capacitance for faraday pseudo-capacitors. Here, by evaporation-induced drying, heterostructure NiS2/NiCo2S4 nanosheets on self-supporting substrate of nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes sponge (NSCS) are obtained with the sponge volume significantly being reduced. With the electrode film thickness being 80 μm, the as-prepared heterostructure NiS2/NiCo2S4/NSCS electrode shows outstanding areal/gravimetric/volumetric capacitance of 10.5 F cm−2/2905 F g−1/1307.2 F cm−3 at 1 A g−1. With the increase of current density from 1 to 60 A g−1, the current retention rate maintains at 61%. When the active material loading is increased to 14 mg cm−2, the gravimetric capacitance can still maintain at 1725 F g−1, indicating the high ratio performance. After 10,000 cycles, the capacity retention still remains 83% at current density of 10 A g−1. In addition, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) delivers have high gravimetric/volumetric energy density of 58.1 W h kg−1/52.3 W h L−1 with excellent cycle stability after 20,000 cycles. Therefore, the electrode material with high loading and high rate performance can be realized by this method.