https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06027-3
Regular Article
Exploring of SnS/Nb4C3(GQDs) as electrode materials for energy storage devices performance evaluation and development opportunities and hydrogen evolution reactions
1
Department of Physics, Riphah International University, Campus Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
2
Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Physics, University of Trento, P/O 38123, Trento, Italy
4
Institute of Physics Ministry of Science, Education Republic of Azerbaijan, 1143, Baku, Azerbaijan
5
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz University, 11942, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia
6
MEU Research Unit, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan
7
Department of Physics, Government College University Lahore, 54000, Punjab, Pakistan
8
Western Caspian University, AZ-1001, Baku, Azerbaijan
9
Khazar University, Department of Physics and Electronics, Mahsati Str.41, Az 1096, Baku, Azerbaijan
a
SMGouadria@pnu.edu.sa
b
waqas.iqbal@riphah.edu.pk
Received:
18
September
2024
Accepted:
15
January
2025
Published online:
25
January
2025
In response to the increasing need for energy, supercapacitors developed to store an additional energy level and exhibit superior efficiency in accumulating energy compared to traditional batteries that undergo several charge–discharge cycles. Transition metal carbides/nitrides, known as MXenes (Nb4C3 MXene), have been the primary subject of advanced research by scientists in energy storage. MXenes, a promising class of 2D materials, offer a unique combination of high conductivity, hydrophilicity, tunable surface chemistry, mechanical resilience, and outstanding electrochemical properties, making them ideal candidates for electrode applications. The recently developed pseudocapacitive material optimizes electrochemical energy storage through its abundant interlayer ion diffusion channels and ion storage sites. Moreover, the MXene has some low conductivity issues; to overcome these issues, the Nb4C3 MXene structure was decorated with Tin monosulfide (SnS). Furthermore, the GQDs were introduced as 6 wt.% dopants to improve the additional conductivity level. The alterations above lead to enhanced porosity, surface area, density, particle structure, shape, and size. These features substantially contribute to improving the electrochemical process (energy storage and hydrogen evaluation reaction). The resulting SnS/Nb3C4(GQDs)-fabricated electrode displayed an excellent specific capacity of 300 C/g and maintained significant charge–discharge cycle stability; capacity retention and coulombic efficiency are 95.52 and 98.61% over 12,000 cycles. The resulting symmetric device achieved a high Ed of 68.2 Wh/kg and Pd of 1315 W/kg at a current density of 2 A/g. Moreover, the SnS/Nb3C4(GQDs) electrode demonstrated a significantly lower HER overpotential of 88.7 mV and Tafel slope values of 83.7 mV/dec. The proposed approach offers a hydrothermal method to combine electrochemically active metal sulfide-based and 2D nanostructured materials, enhancing their energy storage and conversion performance. After the stability test, we have performed the CV, GCD and EIS analyses which show the optimal performance with minor change (Fig. S1).
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06027-3.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
