Pompom 3D flower like carbon-based Mn3O4 thin film electrodes for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Manganese oxides have received a lot of attention as positive electrode materials for supercapacitors, but they still present challenges due to their weak electrical conductivity, lack of electroactive sites, and slow charge transfer kinetics. Herein, utilizing the electron beam evaporation technique, we effectively create pompom 3D flower-like C/Mn3O4 particles on Au/Ti/SiO2/(textured) Silicon (ATS) substrates with a few nanometers thickness. High accessibility to active species is provided by the linked carbon with Mn3O4 and the flower-shaped particles with multiple petals, which further enhance charge transfer kinetics. As a result, C/Mn3O4 thin film electrodes showed outstanding cycling stability of 89% even after 10,000 cycles and a reversible capacity of 1452 Fg−1 at 1 mVs−1 scan rate. The C/Mn3O4 thin film-based electrodes improved electrochemical performance is attributable to their unique surface topology.