Facile synthesis of the SnTe/SnSe binary nanocomposite via a hydrothermal route for flexible solid-state supercapacitors

Muhammad Abdullah; Peter John; Khaled Fahmi Fawy; Sumaira Manzoor; Kashif Younas Butt; Abdul Ghafoor Abid; Mouslim Messali; Muhammad Najam-Ul-Haq; Muhammad Naeem Ashiq

doi:10.1039/d3ra01028g

Facile synthesis of the SnTe/SnSe binary nanocomposite via a hydrothermal route for flexible solid-state supercapacitors

RSC Adv. 2023 Apr 17;13(18):12009-12022. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01028g.

Authors

Muhammad Abdullah¹, Peter John¹, Khaled Fahmi Fawy², Sumaira Manzoor³, Kashif Younas Butt⁴, Abdul Ghafoor Abid³, Mouslim Messali⁵, Muhammad Najam-Ul-Haq³, Muhammad Naeem Ashiq³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Government College University Lahore Pakistan.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University P.O. Box 9004 Abha 61413 Saudi Arabia.
³ Institute of Chemical Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan 60800 Pakistan naeembzu@bzu.edu.pk.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Lahore Lahore Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University P.O. Box, 90950 Riyadh 11623 Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Environmental degradation and energy shortage are the two biggest problems facing the world right now. Because of the limited supply of non-renewable sources, the production of environment-friendly energy and its storage has gained significant importance. Pseudocapacitors have lately caught the interest of energy specialists due to their greater energy/power density and prolonged cycle life. In this work, binding-free SnTe/SnSe (STSS) electrodes deposited onto Ni foam (NF) as the conductive substrate have been developed by a facile hydrothermal route for supercapacitor applications. Several analytical tools were utilized to study the morphological, structural and textural characteristics. The electrochemical results obtained from a three-electrode system suggest that the STSS electrode material exhibits great specific capacitance (C _s) of 1276 F g^-1, specific energy (E _d) of 46.45 W h kg^-1 and specific power (P _d) of 256 W kg^-1 @ 1 A g^-1. The results of C _dl indicate that the STSS (31.28 mF) has a larger C _dl value than those of SnTe (23.22 mF) and SnSe (26.35 mF). The analysis of electrochemical stability indicates that the STSS displays structural stability over 5000 cycles with a maximum capacitance retention of 96%. The Nyquist plot profile displayed a smaller R _ct value for STSS (0.89 Ω) than SnSe (1.13 Ω) and SnTe (1.97 Ω). The symmetric behavior of STSS was determined in 2.0 M potassium hydroxide. The results reveal that this material has a specific capacitance of 537.72 F g^-1 and specific energy of 78.32 W h kg^-1. These findings suggest that the STSS electrode might serve as a potential candidate for supercapacitors and other energy-saving equipment.