Hierarchical MoS2 Nanotubes Supported by Tubular CoS2 on Carbon Cloth as Flexible Electrodes for Durable Lithium-Ion Storage

An ingenious design and a controllable architecture are critical for the construction of flexible electrodes. In this study, we realized the enriched nanorods on carbon cloth as templates by controlling the growth of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and finally formed hollow CoS2@MoS2 nanotube arrays after postprocessing. The outer layer is staggered interconnected MoS2 nanosheets with gaps between them, providing rich active points for electrochemical reaction. The hierarchical tubular structure and core–shell system significantly improves the electrical conductivity, promotes the diffusion of lithium ions, and has a good buffering effect on the volume change. Therefore, it exhibits an excellent lithium storage capacity with an areal specific capacity as high as 2.35 mAh cm–2 after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.5 mA cm–2. Furthermore, it reaches 1.55 mAh cm–2 in the full-cell test at 5 mA cm–2. At the same time, its strong flexibility enables stable capacity output in pouch cells. In this regard, our research provides an idea for the application of flexible devices.