Highly Compressible Carbon Sponge Supercapacitor Electrode with Enhanced Performance by Growing Nickel–Cobalt Sulfide Nanosheets

The development of compressible supercapacitor highly relies on the innovative design of electrode materials with both superior compression property and high capacitive performance. This work reports a highly compressible supercapacitor electrode which is prepared by growing electroactive NiCo2S4 (NCS) nanosheets on the compressible carbon sponge (CS). The strong adhesion of the metallic conductive NCS nanosheets to the highly porous carbon scaffolds enable the CS–NCS composite electrode to exhibit an enhanced conductivity and ideal structural integrity during repeated compression–release cycles. Accordingly, the CS–NCS composite electrode delivers a specific capacitance of 1093 F g–1 at 0.5 A g–1 and remarkable rate performance with 91% capacitance retention in the range of 0.5–20 A g–1. Capacitance performance under the strain of 60% shows that the incorporation of NCS nanosheets in CS scaffolds leads to over five times enhancement in gravimetric capacitance and 17 times enhancement in volumetric capacitance. These performances enable the CS–NCS composite to be one of the promising candidates for potential applications in compressible electrochemical energy storage devices.