Hierarchical MoS2 Nanotubes Supported by Tubular CoS2 on Carbon Cloth as Flexible Electrodes for Durable Lithium-Ion Storage

An ingenious design and a controllable architecture are critical for the construction of flexible electrodes. In this study, we realized the enriched nanorods on carbon cloth as templates by controlling the growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and finally formed hollow CoS2@MoS2 nanotube arrays after postprocessing. The outer layer is staggered interconnected MoS2 nanosheets with gaps between them, providing rich active points for electrochemical reaction. The hierarchical tubular structure and core-shell system significantly improves the electrical conductivity, promotes the diffusion of lithium ions, and has a good buffering effect on the volume change. Therefore, it exhibits an excellent lithium storage capacity with an areal specific capacity as high as 2.35 mAh cm(-2) after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.5 mA cm(-2). Furthermore, it reaches 1.55 mAh cm(-2) in the full-cell test at 5 mA cm(-2). At the same time, its strong flexibility enables stable capacity output in pouch cells. In this regard, our research provides an idea for the application of flexible devices.