Synthesis of Porous NiMo Sulfide Microspheres for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Supercapacitor

Novel hierarchical porous NiMoS 4 microspheres with high electrochemical performance was successfully prepared using a facile one-step hydrothermal method. The dual application of porous NiMoS 4 microspheres in energy harvesting and storage (i.e., dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and supercapacitors (SCs), respectively) is explored. In contrast to NiS 2 nanosheets, MoS 2 nanosheets and Pt counter electrodes (CEs), the NiMoS 4 microspheres CE demonstrated the lowest charge transfer resistance and highest electrocatalytic activity for the I 3 − /I − redox couple reaction. The NiMoS 4 -based DSSC showed a higher power conversion efficiency (8.9%) even than that of Pt-based DSSC (8.7%) under simulated standard global AM 1.5 G sunlight (100 mW cm − 2 ). As an electroactive material for SCs, the assembled NiMoS 4 //AC asymmetric supercapacitor showed excellent specific capacitance (118.7 F g − 1 at 1 A g − 1 ) , high energy density of 42.2 Wh kg − 1 (with a power density of 799.2 W kg − 1 ) , and superior cycling durability with a specific capacitance retention of 79.5% after 9000 cycles at 3 A g − 1 .