Scalable, microwave-assisted decoration of commercial cotton fabrics with binary nickel cobalt sulfides towards textile-based energy storage

High-performance textile-based energy storage systems with high energy and power densities alongside remarkable cyclic life are always at the leading edge of wearable electronics. Herein, commercial cotton fabrics (CCFs) are used as the substrates for the fabrication of ultra-light, high-performance wearable supercapacitors. Hierarchical microstructures of nickel-cobalt sulfide (Ni-Co-S) decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are used as the positive supercapacitor electrodes. Enhanced electrochemical performance with a specific gravimetric capacity of 331 Cg(-1) (at a current density of 0.3 Ag-1) is obtained from these Ni-Co-S@SWCNT@CCF electrodes. Besides, composites of graphene oxide (GO) and iron sulfide (FeS) decorated onto the SWCNT@CCFs are used as the negative electrodes in assembled asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs). The FeS-rGO@SWCNT@CCFs showed a fairly high specific capacity of 160.8 Fg(-1). The assembled Ni-Co-S@SWCNT//FeS-rGO@SWCNT ASC textile devices with a relatively broad potential window of 1.6 V not only delivered superior energy density (47.72 Wh.kg(-1)) at a reasonable power density of 346 W.kg(-1) but also rendered remarkable cyclic durability after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. The advanced asymmetric design together with promising results presented herein make these supercapacitors a potent candidate for powering high-performance wearable electronics.