Exploring the potential of a ZnS/CNFs cloudy-like architecture for high-performance asymmetric supercapacitors

This research presents a novel fabrication approach to develop a ZnS-Carbon nanofiber (CNFs) cloudy-like composite material for application in electrochemical energy storage devices. A co-precipitation technique, combined with wet-chemical-assisted synthesis, was used to synthesize the composite material. The ZnS-CNFs cloudy-like architecture exhibited excellent capacitance value, of 500 F/g in a potential window between 0.0 to 0.6 V, outperforming the individual ZnS and CNFs electrodes. Additionally, the study showed that the ZnS-CNFs cloudy-like architecture possessed coherent pathways, facilitating efficient charge transport and ion mobilization, which led to superior energy storage performance. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was also assembled using the synthesized ZnS-CNFs composite as an active electrode with activated carbon as an anode to construct a full cell assembly in KOH electrolyte. The ASC device demonstrated an impressively high power density of 7680 W/kg at 6.4 Wh/kg and maximum specific energy of 26.7 Wh/kg with a good stability of 81.4% at a current density of 10 A/g. The results indicate significant potential for utilizing the ZnS-CNFs cloudy-like architecture as a formidable electrode material in advanced ASC devices. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023.