Synthesis of MoS2/MoO3 or P3HT nanocomposites consisting of sandwich-like structures via environmental benign supercritical fluid CO2 and its use in supercapacitor

Environmental friendly supercritical fluid CO2 technique has been used to synthesize MoS2/nanobelt MoO3 and MoS2/nanowire Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanocomposite using commercial MoS2 and P3HT powders, and hydrothermally synthesized MoO3 as the precursor materials. Two unique features are demonstrated. One is that the supercritical fluid CO2 not only transforms the commercial 2H MoS2 into 1T exfoliated MoS2 but also partially oxidizes MoS2 into MoO3, The other is that not only nanowires are inserted into layered MoS2 for the first time but also the resulting MoS2/P3HT nanocomposites exhibit a distinctive structure favoring ion transport. More importantly, the unique features lead to reduced electrical resistance due to improved ion and electron transfers. Both MoS2/MoO3 and MoS2/P3HT exhibit significantly improved electrical conductivity with additional redox active sites such that excellent specific capacitance of 39 mF cm(-2) and 55 mF cm(-2) at 5 mV s(-1) in 1 M KCl are obtained for MoS2/MoO3 and MoS2/P3HT, respectively. The results show an enhancement of capacitance by 244% and 423% for MoS2/MoO3 and MoS2/P3HT as compare to exfoliated MoS2, respectively. The MoS2/MoO3 and MoS2/P3HT symmetric cell also show excellent cycle stability up to 114% and 722% after 2000 cycles, respectively.