MnO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposite with highly enhanced supercapacitor performance

Abstract

A novel sandwich-like MnO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposite (NC) based on the integration of high-density MnO2 nanorods (NRs) onto the surfaces of two-dimensional (2D) g-C3N4 sheets has been successfully fabricated through a facile soft chemical route at low temperature. The MnO2/g-C3N4 NC electrode enhanced the supercapacitor (SC) performance, benchmarked against both the bare MnO2 NRs electrode and the MnO2/graphene oxide (GO) NC electrode, exhibiting high specific capacitance of 211 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g, with good rate capacity and cycling stability. The sandwich-like hybrid structure, the unique 2D structure of the g-C3N4 sheets and the presence of nitrogen in the g-C3N4 all contributed to the promising SC performance of the MnO2/g-C3N4 NC. This work demonstrated the advantages of the g-C3N4 sheets over the commonly-used GO sheets in the design of novel hybrid composite for enhanced capacitance performance of MnO2-based electrochemical SCs, and the results could be extended to other electrode materials for SCs.