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

Abstract

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.