Co-doped 1T-MoS₂ nanosheets anchored on carbon cloth as self-supporting anode for high-performance lithium storage

The widespread use of wearable devices has triggered a huge demand for flexible power source. Flexible lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely regarded as an ideal power source for wearable devices because of their high energy density and long cycle life, but their application is limited by traditional rigid electrodes. A promising strategy is to prepare flexible electrodes by synthesising active materials with high capacity on flexible carbon substrates. In this study, Co-doped 1T-MoS₂ nanosheets were successfully anchored on a pretreatment carbon cloth (CC) by using a facile one-step solvothermal method, which is denoted as Co-MoS₂/CC. Benefiting from the high conductivity and large layer spacing of the metallic 1T-MoS₂, self-supporting CC framework, doping of cobalt and their synergistic effect, when used as a self-supporting anode for LIBs, Co-MoS₂/CC delivers a high reversible capacity of 1392 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹ and retains 611 mAh g⁻¹ at 2 A g⁻¹ over 300 cycles. Furthermore, it delivers a remarkable rate performance of 230 mAh g⁻¹ at 10 A g⁻¹. The facile and scalable synthesis method can also be applied to other similar flexible free-standing electrodes for the application of electrochemical energy storage.