Molybdenum sulfide-based supercapacitors: From synthetic, bibliometric, and qualitative perspectives

Molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) is one of the active materials used in the fabrication of two-dimensional supercapacitors devices and has attracted increased attention because of its unique electronic properties with direct bandgap. The exposed active edge sites and large area-specific surfaces present in MoS2 nanostructures are highly interesting properties of the materials. It was stressed that the preparation methods and composite substrates of MoS2-based supercapacitors are one of the deciding factors recorded for improving electrochemical performance. This review aims to appraise the preparations, electrochemical studies, and bibliometric analysis of MoS2-based supercapacitors. The top-down and bottom-up methods of preparing MoS2 with the recent electrochemical properties for their supercapacitor devices were highlighted. Likewise, the analysis of the literature related to MoS2-based supercapacitors that are published between 2007 and 2020 using bibliometric analysis, based on retrieved documents from the Scopus database. The ranking of the authors, institutions, journals, and countries was analyzed to evaluate the quality and influence of their publications using different indicators such as the number of articles, total citations, average citations per year, and H-index values. The analysis shows that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of publications since 2013. China was found to be a leading country with the highest number of publications related to MoS2-based supercapacitors and international collaboration influences. The bibliometric results show that the most cited articles are spread across the six countries while the United States has the highest number of citations. This review should serve as a guide for energy researchers to select suitable methods of preparation and appropriate research collaboration through bibliometric studies. Finally, we discussed the opportunities created by MoS2-based materials as an ingenious platform for advanced storage capacity. Highlights MoS2 is one of the active materials used in the fabrication of two-dimensional-supercapacitors devices and successfully applied in energy storage applications. The exposed active edge sites and large area-specific surface present in MoS2 nanostructures are highly interesting properties of the materials. Bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on MoS2-based supercapacitors was studied. Discussion on the advanced storage capacity of the materials were highlighted. The acceptability of scientometrics in determining the promising areas for future research collaborations were highlighted.

Automated summary

Molybdenum sulfide (MoS2) is an active material in the fabrication of two-dimensional supercapacitors with direct bandgap, while its nanostructures with active edge sites and large area-specific surface contribute to its unique properties. International collaboration plays a significant role in research advancements in the field.