A Ni-Co sulfide nanosheet/carbon nanotube hybrid film for highenergy and high-power flexible supercapacitors

Flexible energy storage is the bottleneck for a variety of advanced electronic devices, and transition metal sulfides are regarded as an ideal candidate for this application due to their high capacitance, versatile microstructures, and low cost. However, to render this family of materials with high mechanical flexibility while maintaining their favorable electrochemical properties is especially challenging. Herein, we report a CNT@NiCo2S4 hybrid film, in which bunches of ultrathin NiCo2S4 nanosheet are firmly and uniformly anchored on a 3D CNT network. This material possesses tunable microstructures, high mechanical flexibility, good conductivity as well as lightweight, making it readily deployable in a flexible supercapacitor. Significantly, the asymmetric flexible supercapacitor based on this material possesses a high voltage output (1.8 V), a high energy/power density (59.5/34.5 Wh kg(-1) at 900/18000 W kg(-1)), outstanding cycling stability (80.64% capacity retention after 10000 cycles), and excellent mechanical flexibility to withstand various deformations, all without sacrificing its performance. Moreover, this strategy has the potential to be extended to other metal sulfides or other carbon-substrates, which opens new avenues for the facile design and manipulation of flexible functional materials for future energy storage. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The CNT@NiCo2S4 hybrid film exhibits high mechanical flexibility, excellent electrochemical properties, and lightweight, suitable for flexible supercapacitors. The asymmetric flexible supercapacitor based on this material shows high voltage output, high energy/power density, outstanding cycling stability, and excellent mechanical flexibility without sacrificing performance.