Co3O4@CoS core-shell nanosheets on carbon cloth for high performance supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

In this work, a two-step electrodeposition strategy is developed for the synthesis of core-shell Co3O4@CoS nanosheet arrays on carbon cloth (CC) for supercapacitor applications. Porous Co3O4 nanosheet arrays are first directly grown on CC by electrodeposition, followed by the coating of a thin layer of CoS on the surface of Co3O4 nanosheets via the secondary electrodeposition. The morphology control of the ternary composites can be easily achieved by altering the number of cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles of CoS deposition. Electrochemical performance of the composite electrodes was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The results demonstrate that the Co3O4@CoS/CC with 4 CV cycles of CoS deposition possesses the largest specific capacitance 887.5 F·g-1 at a scan rate of 10 mV·s-1 (764.2 F·g-1 at a current density of 1.0 A·g-1), and excellent cycling stability (78.1% capacitance retention) at high current density of 5.0 A·g-1 after 5000 cycles. The porous nanostructures on CC not only provide large accessible surface area for fast ions diffusion, electron transport and efficient utilization of active CoS and Co3O4, but also reduce the internal resistance of electrodes, which leads to superior electrochemical performance of Co3O4@CoS/CC composite at 4 cycles of CoS deposition. © 2017 by the authors.