A Cost Effective, Facile Hydrothermal Approach of Zinc Sulfide Decorated on Graphene Nanocomposite for Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract

A cost effective, facile hydrothermal method was used for the synthesis of ZnS/graphene (G) nano-composites. The XRD analysis clearly confirmed the presence of cubic sphalerite structure of ZnS which maintained its structure both in pure and composite materials matrix. The spectroscopic investigations like FTIR and FT-Raman analysis, and optical studies of the ZnS and ZnS/G nanocomposite were also carried out. The thermal behaviour of ZnS and ZnS/G nanocomposite showed that ZnS/G have higher thermal stability. The SEM analysis showed the spherical nature of ZnS nanoparticles covered over the surface of the graphene sheets and elemental composition of the GO, ZnS and ZnS/G nanocomposite was analyzed by EDAX analysis. The electrochemical properties of the prepared nanocomposite were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge discharge techniques. The specific capacitance of ZnS and ZnS/G nanocomposite was found to be 129.67, 315.1, respectively, at 5 mV/s scan rate. The obtained results are compared with reported results and the results indicate the possibility that, the synthesized sample have a good potential to be used as an electrode materials for high energy super capacitor applications.