Hydrothermal synthesis of MoS2 for supercapacitive application

Abstract

MoS2 a member of two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide is a potential candidate for energy storage applications due to the abundance of its elemental constituents, nontoxicity and ease of synthesized via cost effective techniques. In MoS2 the S-Mo-S trilayers are separated by weak van der Waals force and hence it can be considered as a suitable alternative to graphene. As MoS2 has better ionic conductivity than metal oxides and high theoretical capacity than graphite, it can be considered as a suitable anode material for Li –ion batteries and super capacitors. In this work MoS2 nanostructures were synthesized by simple hydrothermal technique by varying the precursor concentration maintaining a constant temperature of 200 °C for a duration of 15 hrs. As prepared samples were characterized using XRD, Raman and SEM studies. X-ray diffraction studies revealed the formation of randomly stacked layers of MoS2 in hexagonal phase. The FESEM images indicated the formation of porous spherical nanostructures of MoS2. The layered structure was further confirmed by the Raman spectra. The layered spherical structure enhances the surface area and can act as an efficient charge storage center. The electrochemical analysis suggests that hydrothermally synthesized MoS2 nanostructures has electric double layer capacitance with good cyclic stability. The increase in current density with the increase in scan rate suggest ideal super capacitive behaviour. These results confirm that MoS2 nanostructures can be used as an electrode material for energy storage applications