Rational growth of thin and crinkled MoS ₂ nanosheets on carbon fiber cloth for enhanced sodium-ion storage

Abstract The growth of molybdenum disulfide (MoS ₂ ) nanosheets on current collectors has received considerable interest since it can be directly used as an additive-free electrode without the addition of other ancillary materials such as carbon black or a binder. However, this new type of electrode still demonstrates poor mechanical contact across interface and low capacity retention, and the improved performance is usually obtained by simply comparing the results to the conventional electrodes containing MoS ₂ powders and binders. Therefore, it is worth to study deeply on how to rationally design microstructure of MoS ₂ nanosheets anchored for achieving high-performance sodium storage. Herein, two types of MoS ₂ nanosheets with different microstructures, including thin and crinkled MoS ₂ nanosheets (TC-MoS ₂ ) and the other thick and flat type (TF-MoS ₂ ), are directly grown on carbon cloth, respectively. Compared with TF-MoS ₂ , TC-MoS ₂ achieves higher reversible capacity and better cycling stability since it can provide much shorter ion transport pathways, larger surface area and better contact to substrate. For instance, TC-MoS ₂ can deliver high reversible capacities of 593.7 mAh g ⁻¹ at 0.1 A g ⁻¹ , showing a high capacity retention of 88.7% over 100 cycles.