Manganese Dioxide Electrode: Attempts to Increase the Electrochemical Utilization

Abstract

Manganese dioxide has been the subject of intense research in recent years since it has been demonstrated that they are characterized by pseudocapacitor properties. Furthermore, hybrid electrochemical capacitor using a negative carbon electrode and positive manganese dioxide electrode together with an aqueous electrolyte allows to prepare a device with a higher cell voltage than either carbon/carbon or manganese dioxide/manganese dioxide symetrical electrochemical capacitor. Unfortunately, the high theoretical specific capacity of a manganese electrode cannot be obtained when thick and industrially relevant electrodes are investigated. In fact, no more than 20% of the manganese dioxide-based electrode material is electrochemically addressable. In this talk, attempts to increase the electrochemical utilization of manganese dioxide will be presented. Our recent studies focussing on the effect of carbon additives, shape of manganese dioxide particles, electrode formulation and electrolyte, including water-in-salt electrolyte, on the performance of manganese dioxide electrode tested in the three-electrode configuration (single electrode characterization) and as a full system will be investigated (1-4). 1. A. Gambou Bosca, D. Bélanger, Effect of the formulation of the electrode on the pore texture and electrochemical performance of the manganese dioxide-based electrode for application in a hybrid electrochemical capacitor. Journal of Materials Chemistry A., 2014, 2, 6463-6473. 2. A. Gambou Bosca, D. Bélanger, Chemical mapping and electrochemical performance of manganese dioxide/activated carbon based composite electrode for asymmetric electrochemical capacitor. Journal of the Electrochemical Society. 2015, 162, A5115-A5123. 3. A. Gambou Bosca, D. Bélanger, Electrochemical accessibility of porous submicron MnO2 spheres as active electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors, Electrochimica Acta, accepted.4. A. Gambou Bosca, D. Bélanger, Electrochemical Characterization of MnO2-Based Composite in the Presence of Salt-in-Water and Water-in-Salt Electrolytes as Electrode for Electrochemical Capacitors, J. Power Sources, submitted.