Effect of chemical exfoliation on the specific capacitance of MoS2 decorated conducting polymer electrodes for supercapacitor applications

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 129; no. 12
• Main Authors: Tomy, Merin, Anu, M. A., Xavier, T. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aniline; Applied physics; Capacitance; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Conducting polymers; Electrodes; Emission analysis; Energy storage; Exfoliation; Field emission microscopy; Fourier transforms; Infrared analysis; Infrared spectroscopy; Machines; Manufacturing; Materials science; Molybdenum disulfide; Nanocomposites; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polyanilines; Processes; Supercapacitors; Surface area; Surface properties; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Nanocomposite; Supercapacitor electrodes; Polyaniline; Chemical exfoliation
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-023-07098-8

The present communication introduces a modified high-performance supercapacitor electrode with chemically exfoliated MoS 2 @PANI nanocomposite as a solution for the upcoming energy needs. We put forward a chemical exfoliation route for increasing the effective surface area of hydrothermally synthesized MoS 2, and effective encapsulation of a conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI), was introduced via in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline monomer. The structural behaviors were systematically explored by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and the surface characteristics were analyzed by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements. The effect of exfoliation on capacitive performance was analyzed by the electrochemical study of two material platforms, MoS 2 @PANI and MoS 2 ex@PANI, in a weakly acidic medium of 1 M H 3 PO 4 . The unique structure of MoS 2 ex@PANI nanocomposite maximizes the ionic contact between the exfoliated MoS 2 and PANI with electrolyte, which synergistically combines the double-layer and pseudocapacitive behavior of the individual compounds, thereby improving the conductivity and energy storage performance. The binary exfoliated composite electrodes revealed an excellent specific capacitance of 277 F g −1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s −1 superior to that of the MoS 2 @PANI electrode. A symmetric supercapacitor device was successfully developed and achieved improved capacitance of 128 F g −1 with impressive cyclic stability (98%) even after 15,000 cycles. The MoS 2 ex@PANI nanocomposite becomes a future solution for existing supercapacitor electrodes for energy storage in lightweight wearable electronics. Graphical abstract