Co1-xS/N, S-codoped carbon loaded porous carbon cloth as flexible electrode for high performance supercapacitors

• CC substrate was etched by Co 3 O 4 under high temperature to form mesoporous structure. • The loaded Co 3 O 4 was completely transformed in to Co 1-x S after two sulfurization processes. • TAA-derived NSC coated the Co 1-x S and prevent their slipping, dissolution and agglomeration. • The formed hierarchical pores could accommodate more Co 1-x S and enhance the pseudo-capacitive behavior. • The p-CC/Co 1-x S/NSC-2 electrode exhibits high flexibility and capacitive properties. The capacitive performances of flexible electrodes highly depend on their architectures and redox activity. In this work, Co 1-x S/N, S-codoped carbon (NSC) loaded porous carbon cloth (p-CC) was prepared through an etching procedure and a followed repeated-sulfurization process. Since the porous CC could accommodate more Co 1-x S nanoparticles and the phase structure of Co 1-x S was well controlled by the repeated-sulfurization process, the obtained p-CC/Co 1-x S/NSC electrode with optimized composition and architecture exhibits high areal capacitances of 1263.8 mF cm −2 at 1 mA cm −2 and 858.6 mF cm −2 at 50 mA cm −2 . The deposited NSC on Co 1-x S could effectively prevent their slipping and agglomeration, and thus make the electrode exhibit high capacitance retention of 99.7 % after 20,000 charge–discharge tests. The all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitor assembled by the formed electrodes and ionic liquid/gel electrolyte shows a maximum energy density of 1.34 mWh cm −3 at the power density of 9.55 mW cm −3 . These results present a new strategy for the construction of cobalt-sulfide/carbon based flexible electrode with high capacitive performances.