NiS/activated carbon composite derived from sodium lignosulfonate for long cycle-life asymmetric supercapacitors

In this paper, NiS nanoparticles had been successfully loaded on activated carbon (AC) derived from sodium lignosulfonate via hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide assisted hydrothermal method. Due to synergistic effects of AC and NiS nanoparticles, the conductivity of the NiS/AC electrode is significantly improved, and the composite electrode exhibits a high specific capacity (677 C/g at 0.5 A g(-1)) and excellent rate performance. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device was assembled with the NiS/AC composite as positive electrode and the AC as negative electrode to evaluate the electrochemical performance of NiS/AC composites in practical applications. The ASC device achieves a maximum energy density of 45.6 Wh/kg at a power density of 509.5 W/kg, and excellent cycling stability with 92.6% of capacitance retention after 20,000 cycles. The electrochemical performance suggests that NiS/AC composites have great application prospect as electrode materials for supercapacitors. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, NiS nanoparticles were loaded on activated carbon derived from sodium lignosulfonate using a hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide assisted hydrothermal method. The NiS/AC composite electrode exhibited improved conductivity, high specific capacity, and excellent rate performance. An asymmetric supercapacitor device assembled with NiS/AC composite as the positive electrode achieved high energy density and excellent cycling stability. These findings indicate the great potential of NiS/AC composites as electrode materials for supercapacitors.