Mechanical alloying synthesis of Ni3S2 nanoparticles as electrode material for pseudocapacitor with excellent performances

Abstract

Nickel sulfide (Ni3S2) nanoparticles are synthesized via a mechanical alloying method combined with a post heat treatment. The nanoparticles structure of Ni3S2 is characterized by SEM and TEM texts. As electrode material for supercapacitor, the Ni3S2 nanoparticles are characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD) curves, owing to the nanostructure, the Ni3S2 exhibits excellent supercapacitive performance, including high specific capacitance (911 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and remarkable cycling stability. In the end, an asymmetric supercapacitor is fabricated using Ni3S2 as positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as negative electrode, a maximum specific capacitance of 102 F g−1 is obtained at 0.5 A g−1 and the energy density of 36 Wh kg−1 are demonstrated at a cell voltage between 0 and 1.6 V. These results illustrate that the novel and facile synthetic route may open a new pathway to prepare other alloy compounds with distinctive nanostructure and outstanding electrochemical performance in supercapacitors.