Synthesis of porous Mn2O3 architecture for supercapacitor electrode application

Abstract

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are a potential candidate for supercapacitor due to its outstanding characteristics such as cheap, abundant and non-toxic. But poor electron conductivity and large volume expansion at charge/discharge process limit their practical application as electrode materials. It is a feasible strategy to design porous TMOs which could provide high surface area and more electroactive sites to improve electrochemical performance. Herein, a porous Mn2O3 was synthesized by hard-template method using MCM-41 as template. It exhibits superior pore property of high specific surface area of 382 m2 g−1. And applied it as electrode material for supercapacitor, the porous Mn2O3 shows higher specific capacitance of 102 F g−1 compared to 4.88 F g−1 and 2.28 F g−1 of two types of block Mn2O3 with surface area 7.27 m2 g−1 and 2.67 m2 g−1 at discharging current density of 0.2 A g−1. Furthermore, it exhibits excellent long cycle stability in that specific capacitance remains stable after 5000 cycles (137% of the initial value). This research demonstrates that the porous Mn2O3 has broad potential as promising electrode materials for supercapacitors.