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Iron sulfide, commonly known as fool's gold, is rapidly emerging as an attractive material for both energy conversion (in photovoltaics) and energy storage, especially as an electrode in lithium-ion batteries. In this manuscript, we report on a simple one-pot two-step technique for synthesis of carbon nanofiber (CNF) cross-linked FeS 2 networks, by microwave pyrolysis of ferrocene to iron decorated CNF and its subsequent sulfidation by a sustainable source, namely, l -cysteine. When used as the negative electrode in lithium-ion batteries, our 3D mesoporous FeS 2 –CNF hybrids exhibit high capacity of 994 mAhg −1 even after 300 cycles, which exceeds the theoretical capacity of FeS 2 (894 mAhg −1 ). Additionally, when applied as super-capacitor electrodes, our microwave-synthesized FeS 2 –CNF electrodes exhibit high capacitance of 612 and 342 Fg -1 at 5 and 100 mVs −1 , respectively, and long-term cyclability, with 97% capacitance retention after 2000 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High performance electrochemical double-layer (EDL) supercapacitor was fabricated with highly efficient electro-active electrode based on mesoporous carbon nanofibers (MCFs) materials. The prepared MCFs from dextrose as carbon source exhibited the high surface to volume ratio, large pore volume and high mesoporous nature. The cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements were carried out to investigate the capacitive and electrochemical behavior of fabricated EDL supercapacitor based on MCFs electrode. A reasonably high specific capacitance of 201 F/g at current density of 0.6 A/g was achieved by the fabricated EDL supercapacitor based on MCFs electrode. A relation of capacitive performance, specific surface area, accessible average pore size and current density was manifested to evaluate the impact of capacitance parameters. The fabricated EDL supercapacitor based on MCFs electrode attained the ultra high energy density of 54.7 W h/kg and reasonable power density of 0.842 kW/kg at the current density of 0.6 A/g. The fabricated EDL supercapacitor manifested an excellent stability by keeping about 88% of initial capacity after 1000 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]