One-Step Synthesis of Zirconium Sulfide Nanoparticles on Flexible Carbon Cloth for Supercapacitor Application

Abstract

Zirconium sulfide nanoparticles (ZrxSy) are prepared on a flexible substrate of carbon cloth (CC) via a one-step synthesis approach using the low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) technique. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image reveals that the particle sizes are in the range of ca. 3~23 nm with an average value of ~13.02 nm. The synthesized ZrxSy nanoparticles are composed of ZrS3 and Zr9S2 phases, which is verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). By using the ZrxSy/CC as a supercapacitor flexible electrode, the capacitance extracted from the cyclic voltammetry measurement is 406 C g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s−1; the capacitance values obtained from GCD curves at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 and 1 A g−1 are 151 and 134 C g−1, respectively. These results highlight the promising potential of ZrxSy as a supercapacitor material for future energy-storage technology.