Boosted electrochemical performance of CuS anchored on carbon cloth as an integrated electrode for quasi-solid-state flexible supercapacitor

• Published in: Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) Vol. 897; p. 115610
• Main Authors: Zhou, Wending, Miao, Jieyu, Yan, Xuehua, Li, Yanli, Zhu, Yihan, Zhang, Wenjing, Zhang, Mengyang, Zhu, Wen, Javed, Muhammad Sufyan, Pan, Jianmei, Hussain, Shahid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.09.2021; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Arrays; Capacitance; Carbon; Carbon cloth; Cloth; Copper sulfides; CuS; Electrochemical analysis; Electrodes; Energy storage; Flexibility; Flux density; Integrated flexible electrode; Quasi-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor; Redox reactions; Solid state; Substrates; Supercapacitors; CuS; Quasi-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor; Carbon cloth; Integrated flexible electrode
• ISSN: 1572-6657; 1873-2569
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2021.115610

•Dense CuS nanoflakes were in-situ anchored on the functionalized carbon cloth.•A one-step solvothermal method was developed to prepare the flexible electrode.•It shows boosting capacitance and outstanding retention after long-term service.•There is little change in CV shapes of supercapacitor after 180° bending test.•Two flexible supercapacitors connected in series supply energy for a 2.2V LED light for 60s. As a typical flexible electrode substrate, carbon cloth (CC) has high flexibility but compromised capacitance performance. In this work, CuS nanoflake arrays with enhanced pseudocapacitance property are loaded on the surface of CC via a one-step solvothermal method. CuS nanoflakes provide the electroactive sites required for faradaic redox reaction, while the channels between the nanoflake arrays play a vital role to improve the efficiency of charges transportation. Benefit from the favorable microstructure, CuS/CC-4 demonstrates the specific capacity of 213.8 C g−1 at 0.49 A g−1 (436.5 mF cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2), and maintains 75.1% of initial capacitance after 5000 cycles. Furthermore, a quasi-solid-state asymmetric flexible supercapacitor (AFSC) is assembled with the voltage window of 1.6 V, which delivers the energy density of 0.027 mWh cm−2 and exhibits outstanding cycle stability of 86.4% after 5000 cycles at a high current density of 5 mA cm−2. This work provides insights into the integrated electrode containing the merits of flexibility, lightweight and satisfying electrochemical performance, and revealing its promising application prospects in flexible energy storage devices.