Abstract
MnO2/N-containing graphene composites with various contents of Mn were fabricated and used as active materials for the electrodes of flexible solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors. By scanning electron microscopes (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectra, the presence of MnO2 and N-containing graphene was verified. The MnO2 nanostructures decorated on the N-containing graphene were of α- and γ-mixed phases. N-containing graphene was found to reduce the charge transfer impedance in the high-frequency region at the electrode/electrolyte interface (RCT) due to its good conductivity. The co-existence of MnO2 and N-containing graphene led to a more reduced RCT and improved charge transfer. Both the mass loading and content of Mn in an active material electrode were crucial. Excess Mn caused reduced contacts between the electrode and electrolyte ions, leading to increased RCT, and suppressed ionic diffusion. When the optimized mass loading and Mn content were used, the 3-NGM1 electrode exhibiting the smallest RCT and a lower ionic diffusion impedance was obtained. It also showed a high specific capacitance of 638 F·g−1 by calculation from the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves. The corresponding energy and power densities were 372.7 Wh·kg−1 and 4731.1 W·kg−1, respectively. The superior capacitance property arising from the synergistic effect of mixed-phase MnO2 and N-containing graphene had permitted the composites promising active materials for flexible solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors. Moreover, the increase of specific capacitance was found to be more significant by the pseudocapacitive MnO2 than N-containing graphene.
Highlights
The rapid development of portable and wearable consumer electronics results in the demand for high-performance energy-storage devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The surface morphologies of graphite oxide, G, N-containing G (NG), and x-NGM composites at different magnifications were examined by scanning electron microscopes (SEM)
X-NGM composites consisting of NG and MnO2 with various Mn contents were fabricated by a low-cost hydrothermal method
Summary
The rapid development of portable and wearable consumer electronics results in the demand for high-performance energy-storage devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. MnO2 nanostructures grown on activated carbon by a wet chemical reaction process was used as the positive electrode, which exhibited a high specific capacitance (345.1 F·g−1 at 0.5 A·g−1) and excellent cycle stability It was assembled with an activated carbon negative electrode to fabricate asymmetric SCs, which showed high energy density of 31.0 Wh·kg−1 at a power density of 500.0 W·kg−1 [19]. Layered δ-MnO2 on N-doped G obtained by a hydrothermal approach was used as the cathode to improve the conductivity and present a high specific capacitance of about 305 F·g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV·s−1 When it was assembled with an activated carbon anode using a gel electrolyte to fabricate flexible asymmetric SSCs (ASSCs), a maximum energy density of 3.5 mWh·cm−3 at a power density of 0.019 W·cm−3 was achieved [52].
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