In this study, the MoS2 nanoparticles grown on crumpled 3D graphene microball (3D GM–MoS2) was synthesized using a microfluidic droplet generator with thermal evaporation-driven capillary compression and hydrothermal reaction. The morphology and size of 3D GM–MoS2 are controlled by the concentration of nano-sized graphene oxide (GO) and the flow rate of oil phase on the droplet generator. The 3D GM–MoS2 with fully sphere-shape and uniform size (~ 5 μm), and homogeneous growth of MoS2 nanoparticles could be synthesized at the flow rate of the oil phase of 60 μL/min with the optimized GO concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, and ( NH4)2MoS4 concentration of 2.0 mg/mL.
Research on Graphene and its importance in the field of energy conversion and storage devices such as fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors and solar cells has gained momentum recently. It is studied to be the most suitable electrode material for enhanced performance of supercapacitors in terms of charge–discharge cycles, specific capacitance, high power and energy densities and so on, specifically due to its high conductivity and large theoretical surface area. Unfortunately, it posits lot of challenges due to its irreversible stacking between the individual sheets resulting in the decrease in the Specific Surface Area (SSA) compared to the theoretically reported values. Numerous studies have been carried out to prevent this stacking in order to increase the surface area, thereby being a more suitable material for the manufacture of electrodes for supercapacitors as its capacitance greatly depends on the electrode material. To solve this problem, the conversion of two-dimensional graphene sheets to three-dimensional crumpled graphene structure has been verified to be the most effective approach. The study of crumpled graphene has been one of the recent trends in the field of energy storage applications in consumer electronics and hybrid vehicles as the process of crumpling can be controlled to suit the prospective device applications.