Facile hydrothermal synthesis of 2D tin sulphide (SnS₂) nanoflakes for supercapacitor applications

Abstract Two dimensional nanomaterials (2D) are considered to be one of the most important electrode materials in energy applications because of their unique structure with enhanced physical and chemical properties. To fabricate a high capacitance electrode material is a tedious process due to their low energy density and high self-discharge rate. In recent years, various transition metal sulphides and their composites have been widely used in electrochemical devices and electrocatalysis. Among them two dimensional tin sulphide nanoflakes (SnS 2 Nfs) have attracted increasing attention owing to their large surface area and interlayer crystal structure. Here, we investigated 2D SnS 2 Nfs is one of the promising materials for energy storage applications which was prepared through a simple hydrothermal process and the effect of structural, morphological and electrochemical properties were studied. As-synthesized SnS 2 Nfs were found to poses hexagonal phase structure with an average crystallite size of 28 nm were estimated from X-ray diffraction (XRD). FE-SEM image attributes the formation of hexagonal nanoflakes. The XPS spectrum revealed the Sn 3d and S 2p of the proposed material and the respective peaks are observed for SnS 2 Nfs. The as synthesized 2D SnS 2 Nfs exhibits high specific capacitance of 380 F/g at current density of 1 A/g and an excellent cyclic stability. The electrode retains 89 % of the initial capacitance after 3,000 cycle at high current density of 10 A/g.