Template-assisted synthesized MoS2/polyaniline hollow microsphere electrode for high performance supercapacitors

Herein we report a template-assisted method to synthesize molybdenum disulfide/polyaniline (MoS2/PANI) hollow microspheres with excellent electrochemical performances for supercapacitors applications. The hollow MoS2 microspheres are assembled by layered MoS2 nanosheets, which provide substantial ion channels and large surface area for electrolyte ion transport. PANI is grown on the surface of the hollow MoS2 microspheres by oxidative polymerization with different mass. The MoS2/PANI-1:2 hollow microspheres electrode possesses the maximum specific capacitance of 364 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s. In addition, the specific capacitance achieves 299 F/g with a current density of 10 A/g and 84.3% of the specific capacitance is retained after 8000 cycles at 10 A/g. The energy density can be as high as 32 Wh/kg at a power density of 320 W/kg. Even at a very high power density of 8320 W/kg, the energy density still maintains 23.1 Wh/kg, showing a large power density range for supercapacitor applications. We assemble a symmetric supercapacitor by using two identical MoS2/PANI microspheres electrodes, and it shows high specific capacitances of 231, 139 F/g at 0.2 and 0.5 A/g, respectively. Our results suggest that the MoS2/PANI hollow microspheres electrode have good cycle stability and significant potential for supercapacitor applications.