One-pot synthesis of CTAB stabilized mesoporous cobalt doped CuS nano flower with enhanced pseudocapacitive behavior

In this study, we prepared porous CuS and Cobalt (Co) doped copper sulfide (CuS) nano flower by hydrothermal route. Cationic surfactant cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as stabilizer and copper nitrate, cobalt nitrate as precursors, thiourea as sulfur source and ethylene glycol as solvent. Structural, functional, optical properties, morphological, surface area and chemical nature of the as-synthesized samples were thoroughly characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, SEM/EDS, TEM, BET and XPS techniques respectively. The optical band gap of CuS and Cobalt doped CuS nano flowers was estimated between 1.9 and 2.52 eV. The scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images demonstrate flower like nanostructures with length around 140 nm. Then the synthesized samples were utilized for electrochemical performance to modify the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The electrochemical performance of the as-synthesized CTAB/CuS and CTAB/Cobalt (0.15 mM) doped CuS material was studied by cyclic voltammetry and electrical impedance spectroscopy. These results demonstrate that CTAB/cobalt doped CuS electrode delivered a high specific capacitance of 586.45 Fg(-1) in a2M KOH aqueous electrolyte at 5 mV/s and indicating their potential application as promising electrode materials for supercapacitors.