SnS 2 is an emerging candidate for an electrode material because of the considerable interlayer spaces in its crystal structures and the large surface area. SnS 2 as a photocatalyst and in lithium ion batteries has been reported. On the other hand, there are only a few reports of their supercapacitor applications. In this study, sheetlike SnS 2 (SL-SnS 2 ), flowerlike SnS 2 (FL-SnS 2 ), and ellipsoid-like SnS 2 (EL-SnS 2 ) were fabricated via a facile solvothermal route using different types of solvents. The results suggested that the FL-SnS 2 exhibited better capacitive performance than the SL-SnS 2 and EL-SnS 2 , which means that the morphology has a significant effect on the electrochemical reaction. The FL-SnS 2 displayed higher supercapacitor performance with a high capacity of approximately ∼431.82 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. The remarkable electrochemical performance of the FL-SnS 2 could be attributed to the large specific surface area and better average pore size. These results suggest that a suitable solvent is appropriate for the large-scale construction of SnS 2 with different morphologies and also has huge potential in the practical applications of high-performance supercapacitors.

The development of heterostructured materials for efficient solar energy conversion and energy storage devices are essential for practical applications. In this study, a simple and relatively inexpensive method was used to improve the visible light-driven photocatalytic activity and electrochemical supercapacitor behavior of the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by elemental red phosphorus (RPh). The as-prepared RPh-g-C3N4 was characterized in detail using a range of spectroscopic techniques to understand the structure, morphology, chemical interaction, and chemical state of the materials. The visible light-driven photocatalytic activity and supercapacitive electrode performance were assessed by the photodegradation of model colored, non-colored organic pollutants, and electrochemical half-cell measurements, respectively. The RPh-g-C3N4 heterostructure with 30 weight percent of RPh exhibited remarkably high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of pollutants compared to the bare constituent materials, which was further confirmed by the photoelectrochemical study under similar visible photoirradiation conditions. The RPh-g-C3N4 heterostructure supercapacitor electrode displayed a high capacitance of 465 F/g and excellent cyclic stability with capacitance retention of 90% after 1000 cycles at a current of 10 A/g. The superior performance was attributed mainly to the narrow band gap, high surface area, capacitive nature of RPh, and nitrogen-rich skeleton of g-C3N4.

This work demonstrates the high performance graphene oxide (GO)/PEDOT:PSS doubled decked hole transport layer (HTL) in the PCDTBT:PC71BM based bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic device. The devices were tested on merits of their power conversion efficiency (PCE), reproducibility, stability and further compared with the devices with individual GO or PEDOT:PSS HTLs. Solar cells employing GO/PEDOT:PSS HTL yielded a PCE of 4.28% as compared to either of individual GO or PEDOT:PSS HTLs where they demonstrated PCEs of 2.77 and 3.57%, respectively. In case of single GO HTL, an inhomogeneous coating of ITO caused the poor performance whereas PEDOT:PSS is known to be hygroscopic and acidic which upon direct contact with ITO reduced the device performance. The improvement in the photovoltaic performance is mainly ascribed to the increased charge carriers mobility, short circuit current, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and decreased series resistance. The well matched work function of GO and PEDOT:PSS is likely to facilitate the charge transportation and an overall reduction in the series resistance. Moreover, GO could effectively block the electrons due to its large band-gap of ~3.6 eV, leading to an increased shunt resistance. In addition, we also observed the improvement in the reproducibility and stability.

Fibrous Pani-MnO2 nanocomposite were prepared using a one-step and scalable in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method. The formation, structural and morphological properties were investigated using a range of characterization techniques. The electrochemical capacitive behavior of the fibrous Pani-MnO2 nanocomposite was examined by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements using a three-electrode experimental setup in an aqueous electrolyte. The fibrous Pani-MnO2 nanocomposite achieved high capacitance (525 F g(-1) at a current density of 2 A g(-1)) and excellent cycling stability of 76.9% after 1000 cycles at 10 A g(-1). Furthermore, the microbial fuel cell constructed with the fibrous Pani-MnO2 cathode catalyst showed an improved power density of 0.0588 W m(-2), which was higher than that of pure Pani and carbon paper, respectively. The improved electrochemical supercapacitive performance and cathode catalyst performance in microbial fuel cells were attributed mainly to the synergistic effect of Pani and MnO2 in fibrous Pani-MnO2, which provides high surface area for the electrode/electrolyte contact as well as electronic conductive channels and exhibits pseudocapacitance behavior.