One-Pot Synthesized Amorphous Cobalt Sulfide With Enhanced Electrochemical Performance as Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

In order to solve the poor cycle stability and the pulverization of cobalt sulfides electrodes, a series of amorphous and crystalline cobalt sulfides were prepared by one-pot solvothermal synthesis through controlling the reaction temperatures. Compared to the crystalline cobalt sulfide electrodes, the amorphous cobalt sulfide electrodes exhibited superior electrochemical performance. The high initial discharge and charge capacities of 2,132 mAh/g and 1,443 mAh/g at 200 mA/g were obtained. The reversible capacity was 1,245 mAh/g after 200 cycles, which is much higher than the theoretical capacity. The specific capability was 815 mAh/g at 800 mA/g and increased to 1,047 mAh/g when back to 100 mA/g, indicating the excellent rate capability. The outstanding electrochemical performance of the amorphous cobalt sulfide electrodes could result from the unique characteristics of more defects, isotropic nature, and the absence of grain boundaries for amorphous nanostructures, indicating the potential application of amorphous cobalt sulfide as anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B and Malachite Green by Cobalt Sulfide Nanoparticles

Present study reports the simple and cost effective thermolytic method for the synthesis of cobalt sulphide nanoparticles (CoS NPs). The PXRD spectrum of cobalt sulphide (CdS) nanoparticles exhibited four peaks indexed to (100), (101), (102) and (110) crystal planes. The average particle size observed from DLS and PXRD was in the range 4.81-12.20 nm. A blue shift in band gap was observed from UV-visible spectra. The FESEM and TEM studies revealed that cobalt sulfide nanoparticles are of cubic and rectangle shapes. FTIR spectra of hexadecylamine (HDA) capped CoS NPs exhibited ν(N-H) absorption around 3350-3240 cm–1. The stretching frequency due to ν(Co-S) appeared in the region 334-332 cm–1. Proton NMR (1H) spectra of CoS NPs showed signals at nearly same positions as in case of capping agent, suggesting its capping nature. ESI-MS analyses of cobalt sulphide nanoparticles displayed peak at m/z = 124.93 corresponding to the [CoS2]+ ion. Thermogravimetric curves showed single step decomposition corresponding to 84.28% weight loss and 15.72% as final residue due to cobalt oxide. The degradation rate of rhodamine B and malachite green dyes after irradiating with sunlight showed 92-94% degradation while irradiated with UV-light of 4.8 eV show much slower degradation rate.

Reversible Room Temperature H2 Gas Sensing Based on Self-Assembled Cobalt Oxysulfide

Reversible H2 gas sensing at room temperature has been highly desirable given the booming of the Internet of Things (IoT), zero-emission vehicles, and fuel cell technologies. Conventional metal oxide-based semiconducting gas sensors have been considered as suitable candidates given their low-cost, high sensitivity, and long stability. However, the dominant sensing mechanism is based on the chemisorption of gas molecules which requires elevated temperatures to activate the catalytic reaction of target gas molecules with chemisorbed O, leaving the drawbacks of high-power consumption and poor selectivity. In this work, we introduce an alternative candidate of cobalt oxysulfide derived from the calcination of self-assembled cobalt sulfide micro-cages. It is found that the majority of S atoms are replaced by O in cobalt oxysulfide, transforming the crystal structure to tetragonal coordination and slightly expanding the optical bandgap energy. The H2 gas sensing performances of cobalt oxysulfide are fully reversible at room temperature, demonstrating peculiar p-type gas responses with a magnitude of 15% for 1% H2 and a high degree of selectivity over CH4, NO2, and CO2. Such excellent performances are possibly ascribed to the physisorption dominating the gas–matter interaction. This work demonstrates the great potentials of transition metal oxysulfide compounds for room-temperature fully reversible gas sensing.