All-solid-state high performance asymmetric supercapacitors based on novel MnS nanocrystal and activated carbon materials

• Published in: Scientific reports 2016-03, Vol.6 (1), p.23289, Article 23289
• Main Authors: Chen, Teng, Tang, Yongfu, Qiao, Yuqing, Liu, Zhangyu, Guo, Wenfeng, Song, Jianzheng, Mu, Shichun, Yu, Shengxue, Zhao, Yufeng, Gao, Faming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/357/995; Activated carbon; Agar; Capacitance; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Manganese; multidisciplinary; Nanotechnology; Potassium hydroxide; Science; Sulfides
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep23289

All-solid-state high-performance asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) are fabricated using γ-MnS as positive electrode and porous eggplant derived activated carbon (EDAC) as negative electrode with saturated potassium hydroxide agar gel as the solid electrolyte. The laminar wurtzite nanostructure of γ-MnS facilitates the insertion of hydroxyl ions into the interlayer space and the manganese sulfide nanowire offers electronic transportation channels. The size-uniform porous nanostructure of EDAC provides a continuous electron pathway as well as facilitates short ionic transportation pathways. Due to these special nanostructures of both the MnS and the EDAC, they exhibited a specific capacitance of 573.9 and 396 F g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 , respectively. The optimized MnS//EDAC asymmetric supercapacitor shows a superior performance with specific capacitance of 110.4 F g −1 and 89.87% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles, a high energy density of 37.6 Wh kg −1 at a power density of 181.2 W kg −1 and remains 24.9 Wh kg −1 even at 5976 W kg −1 . Impressively, such two assembled all-solid-state cells in series can light up a red LED indicator for 15 minutes after fully charged. These impressive results make these pollution-free materials promising for practical applications in solid aqueous electrolyte-based ASCs.