Flexible nickel disulfide nanoparticles-anchored carbon nanofiber hybrid mat as a flexible binder-free cathode for solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors

Surbhi Anand; Md Wasi Ahmad; Atiya Fatima; Anupam Kumar; Arvind Bharadwaj; Duck-Joo Yang; Arup Choudhury

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac20fd

Flexible nickel disulfide nanoparticles-anchored carbon nanofiber hybrid mat as a flexible binder-free cathode for solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors

Nanotechnology. 2021 Sep 15;32(49). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac20fd.

Authors

Surbhi Anand¹, Md Wasi Ahmad², Atiya Fatima², Anupam Kumar¹, Arvind Bharadwaj³, Duck-Joo Yang⁴, Arup Choudhury¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi 835215, India.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Dhofar University, Salalah, PO Box 2509, Postal Code 211, Oman.
³ Centre for Converging Technologies, University of Rajasthan, J.L.N. Marg, Jaipur 302004, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson, TX 75080, United States of America.

PMID: 34433156
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac20fd

Abstract

Nickel disulfide nanoparticles (NiS₂NPs)-anchored carbon nanofibers (NiS₂NPs@CNF) hybrid mats were fabricated via the sequential process of stabilization and carbonization of electrospun polyacrylonitrile-based fibers followed by hydrothermal growth of NiS₂NPs on the porous surface of CNFs. The vertical growth of NiS₂NPs on entire surfaces of porous CNFs appeared in the SEM images of hybrid mat. The hierarchical NiS₂NPs@CNF core-shell hybrid nanofibers with 3D interconnected network architecture can endow continuous channels for easy and rapid ionic diffusion to access the electroactive NiS₂NPs. The conductive and interconnected CNF core could facilitate electron transfer to the NiS₂shell. Moreover, the porous CNF as a buffering matrix can resist volumetric deformation during the long-term charge-discharge process. The NiS₂NPs@CNF electrode can yield high specific capacitance (916.3 F g^-1at 0.5 A g^-1) and reveal excellent cycling performances. The solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was fabricated with NiS₂NPs@CNF mat as a binder-free positive electrode and activated carbon cloth as a negative electrode. As-assembled ASC not only produce high specific capacitance (364.8 F g^-1at 0.5 A g^-1) but also exhibit excellent cycling stability (∼92.8% after 5000 cycles). The ASC delivered a remarkably high energy density of 129.7 Wh kg^-1at a power density of 610 W kg^-1. These encouraging results could make this NiS₂NPs@CNF hybrid mat a good choice of cathode material for the fabrication of flexible solid-state ASC for various flexible/wearable electronics.

Keywords: asymmetric supercapacitor; carbon nanofiber; core–shell nanofiber mats; electrochemical performances; nickel disulfide nanoparticles.