NiCo2S4 combined 3D hierarchical porous carbon derived from lignin for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Metal sulfides with the nature of low electronegativity and high electrochemical activity are potentially considered effective electrode materials for supercapacitors. Meanwhile, hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) materials derived from eco-friendly enzymatic hydrolysis lignin are the ideal matrix for holding nanoparticles (NP) that allows the overall NP/HPC composite to achieve outstanding electrochemical performance. In this study, NiCo2S4 nanoparticles were in-situ synthesized on the inner surface of 3D HPC that derived from enzymatic hydrolysis lignin with a simple one-step solvothermal method, thus forming a high-performance composite electrode material for supercapacitor applications. As a result, the NiCo2S4/HPC composite yields an outstanding specific capacity of 1264.2 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and also exhibits remarkable rate performance. Such remarkable property is attributed to the effective combination of NiCo2S4 plus HPC and their strong chemical bonds, which enable excellent electronic conductivity and abundant exposed electroactive sites. The asymmetric supercapacitor assembled by utilizing NiCo2S4/HPC and active carbon as the positive and negative electrodes, respectively, provide an excellent energy density of 32.05 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 193.9 W kg−1. This work puts forward a practical optimization strategy for metal sulfides used in electrochemical energy storage devices.