Manganese dioxide coupled with hollow carbon nanofiber toward high-performance electrochemical supercapacitive electrode materials

Abstract The various advantages and special characteristics of the polymorphism and good structural flexibility of manganese dioxide make it a valuable electrode material in the field of energy storage devices. In this study, hollow carbon nanofiber-manganese dioxide nanocomposites were prepared via a simple two-step process. The prepared electrode materials were characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, and the electrochemical supercapacitive performance was analyzed in a three-electrode assembly cell using galvanostatic charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry measurements. Amon all the prepared electrodes (H-CNfs, MnO2-H-CNfs-1, MnO2-H-CNfs-3 and MnO2-H-CNfs-5), the optimized MnO2-H-CNfs-3 electrode displays a high specific capacitance of 464 Fg-1 and excellent long-term cycling performance with a capacitance retention of 92.3% over 4500 cycles. The enhanced performance of the developed electrode was attributed to the synergistic effect due to the presence of the carbon nanofiber that provides sufficient conductivity and provides a large surface area for the electrode-electrolyte reactions, whereas MnO2 provides excellent redox behavior during the charge-discharge reactions. The developed electrode and its performance can play an important role in the development of highly efficient energy storage electrode materials.