One-pot mass preparation of MoS/C aerogels for high-performance supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries.

In this paper, we report the successful design and synthesis of a hierarchically porous MoS/C composite aerogel by simple one-pot mass preparation. The synthesis involves the in situ formation of MoS nanosheets on agarose molecular chains, the gelation of MoS-deposited agarose monomers to generate a composite hydrogel, and in situ transformation of the composite hydrogel into a MoS/C composite aerogel through carbonization. This composite aerogel can be used as a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries. When tested as a supercapacitor electrode, it achieves a high specific capacitance of 712.6 F g at 1 A g and 97.3% capacity retention after 13 000 cycles at 6 A g. In addition, as a lithium-ion battery electrode, it exhibits a superior rate capability (653.2 mA h g at 0.1 A g and 334.5 mA h g at 5.0 A g) and an ultrahigh capacity retention of nearly 100% after 1000 cycles at 1 A g. These performances may be ascribed to the unique structure of the MoS/C composite aerogel, such as hierarchical pores, (002) plane-expanded MoS and interconnected carbon networks embedded uniformly with MoS nanosheets. This work may provide a general and simple approach for mass preparation of composite aerogel materials and pave the way for promising materials applied in both supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries.