High areal capacitance of Mn3O4-carbon nanotube electrodes

• Published in: Materials letters Vol. 215; pp. 4 - 7
• Main Authors: Poon, R., Zhitomirsky, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.03.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Capacitance; Carbon nanotubes; Composite; Dispersants; Dispersion; Electrochemical analysis; Electrode; Electrodes; Impedance; Manganese oxide; Manganese oxides; Materials science; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Oxidation; Supercapacitor; Nanoparticles; Carbon nanotubes; Supercapacitor; Electrode; Composite; Manganese oxide
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2017.12.053

[Display omitted] •Manganese oxide-carbon nanotube nanocomposites were prepared.•New steroid dispersant allowed good dispersion of carbon nanotubes.•Nanocomposite electrodes were used for electrodes of supercapacitors.•The electrodes showed high capacitance and low impedance.•The electrodes showed activation behavior related to capacitance increase. This paper reports the fabrication of Mn3O4-multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) electrodes for supercapacitors with a high active mass loading of 35 mg cm−2, which showed high capacitance of 3.5 F cm−2, good capacitance retention at high charge-discharge rates and low impedance. Good electrochemical performance was achieved using non-covalent modification of MWCNT with an anionic steroid dispersant, which allowed excellent MWCNT dispersion and facilitated the fabrication of Mn3O4-MWCNT nanocomposites with uniform distributions of individual components. The electrodes showed activation behavior, related to capacitance increase, impedance reduction and enrichment of the Mn3+ and Mn4+ oxidation states.