The specific capacitance of sol–gel synthesised spinel MnCo2O4 in an alkaline electrolyte

Abstract

In this work, high performance spinel MnCo2O4 electrode was fabricated via a facile sol–gel method and its capacitive behavior was successfully investigated in alkaline electrolyte. MnCo2O4 electrode was characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The pseudo capacitive behavior of spinel MnCo2O4 was widely investigated in 2M KOH aqueous electrolyte using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). As a result, the spinel MnCo2O4 exhibited excellent porous structure and the highest specific capacitance of 405Fg−1 was achieved at a current density of 5mAcm−2. In addition, the spinel MnCo2O4 displayed desirable stability in alkaline electrolyte during long-term cycles with a cycling efficiency of 95.1% over 1,000 cycles. The high specific capacitance and excellent cycling ability of MnCo2O4 show promise for its application in supercapacitors.