Co1-xS/N, S-codoped carbon loaded porous carbon cloth as flexible electrode for high performance supercapacitors

[Display omitted] •CC substrate was etched by Co3O4 under high temperature to form mesoporous structure.•The loaded Co3O4 was completely transformed in to Co1-xS after two sulfurization processes.•TAA-derived NSC coated the Co1-xS and prevent their slipping, dissolution and agglomeration.•The formed hierarchical pores could accommodate more Co1-xS and thus enhance the pseudo-capacitive behavior.•The p-CC/Co1-xS/NSC-2 electrode exhibits high flexibility and capacitive properties. The capacitive performances of flexible electrodes highly depend on their architectures and redox activity. In this work, Co1-xS/N, S-codoped carbon (NSC) loaded porous carbon cloth (p-CC) was prepared through an etching procedure and a followed repeated-sulfurization process. Since the porous CC could accommodate more Co1-xS nanoparticles and the phase structure of Co1-xS was well controlled by the repeated-sulfurization process, the obtained p-CC/Co1-xS/NSC electrode with optimized composition and architecture exhibits high areal capacitances of 1263.8 mF cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2 and 858.6 mF cm−2 at 50 mA cm−2. The deposited NSC on Co1-xS could effectively prevent their slipping and agglomeration, and thus make the electrode exhibit high capacitance retention of 99.7 % after 20,000 charge–discharge tests. The all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitor assembled by the formed electrodes and ionic liquid/gel electrolyte shows a maximum energy density of 1.34 mWh cm−3 at the power density of 9.55 mW cm−3. These results present a new strategy for the construction of cobalt-sulfide/carbon based flexible electrode with high capacitive performances.