Composite electrodes for supercapacitors, ternary materials with flower-like molybdenum disulfide structures, and related methods

A method of fabricating a ternary electrode material having a flower-like molybdenum disulfide (fMoS2) morphology for a composite electrode, the method comprising:

• fabricating a MoS2 structure on a composite CNT-ZIF structure to form the ternary composite electrode material, the composite CNT-ZIF structure comprises a carbon nanotubes (CNT) core surrounding by a porous zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) shell, and during the fabricating step an architecture of the MoS2 structure is controlled by adjusting a molar ratio of Mo and S reagents so as to form edge-rich flower-like MoS2 structures with sulfur vacancies (fMoS2).

A ternary material comprising:

• a composite CNT-ZIF structure comprising a conductive network of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and a zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) coating covering the conductive network;
• and
• a layer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) structures disposed on the composite CNT-ZIF structure, the MoS2 structures comprising pores that provide diffusion paths for ions to and/or from the ZIF coating and/or the conductive network of CNT, wherein the MoS2 structures have a flower-like (fMoS2) morphology.