NiCo2S4 Nanosheets Grown on Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Foams as an Advanced Electrode for Supercapacitors

Abstract

To push the energy density limit of supercapacitors, a new class of electrode materials with favorable architectures is strongly needed. Binary metal sulfides hold great promise as an electrode material for high‐performance energy storage devices because they offer higher electrochemical activity and higher capacity than mono‐metal sulfides. Here, the rational design and fabrication of NiCo 2 S 4 nanosheets supported on nitrogen‐doped carbon foams (NCF) is presented as a novel flexible electrode for supercapacitors. A facile two‐step method is developed for growth of NiCo 2 S 4 nanosheets on NCF with robust adhesion, involving the growth of Ni‐Co precursor and subsequent conversion into NiCo 2 S 4 nanosheets through sulfidation process. Benefiting from the compositional features and 3D electrode architectures, the NiCo 2 S 4/NCF electrode exhibits greatly improved electrochemical performance with ultrahigh capacitance (877 F g−1 at 20 A g−1) and excellent cycling stability. Moreover, a binder‐free asymmetric supercapacitor device is also fabricated by using NiCo 2 S 4/NCF as the positive electrode and ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC)/NCF as the negative electrode; this demonstrates high energy density (≈45.5 Wh kg−1 at 512 W kg−1).