Fabrication and Characterization of Zinc Sulfide and Natural Fibers Based Flexible Composite for Energy Storage Application

Abstract

Metal Sulfides are commonly employed as an electrode for energy storage applications due to versatile characteristics of high-power density and cycling stability in comparison of metal oxides. Among metal sulfides, zinc sulfide is promising due to facile synthesis and wide potential window. However, zinc sulfide based electrodes are limited to employ in modern bendable/flexible energy storage devices due to inherited rigid structure. Lignocelluloses (LC) fibers known as natural fibers can incorporate flexible matrix for zinc sulfide nanostructure to develop flexible and environmentally safe paper electrode for energy storage applications. Presented research shows successful fabrication of zinc sulfide nanostructure via facile microwave assisted method and developed bendable ZnS/LC composite paper sheets. Furthermore, fabricated composition sheet is successfully prepared and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Vis spectroscopy, Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD) characterizations for energy storage applications.