Design of mass-controllable NiCo2S4/Ketjen Black nanocomposite electrodes for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

NiCo₂S₄/Ketjen Black nanocomposites have been successfully fabricated on nickel foam by a facile two-step solution-based method. Compared with the pure NiCo₂S₄ electrode (Ni₁K₀), the NiCo₂S₄/KB nanocomposite electrodes (Ni₁K_0.5, Ni₁K_0.25, and Ni₁K_0.125) with controllable mass loadings show significantly enhanced electrochemical performance. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that the Ni₁K_0.25 electrode has a competitive areal specific capacitance (10.10 F cm⁻² at 10 mA cm⁻²), good rate capacitance (38.41% capacitance retention at 40 mA cm⁻²) and excellent cycling stability (92.1% capacitance retention, 6000 cycles at 10 mA cm⁻²). Such high performance may promote NiCo₂S₄/KB nanocomposites in practical application for supercapacitors.