In situ construction of hierarchical Co/MnO@graphite carbon composites for highly supercapacitive and OER electrocatalytic performances

The development of new electrode materials with high specific capacity for excellent supercapacitive storage and energy conversion is highly desirable. The combination of metal and metal oxide with carbon is an effective strategy to achieve active bimetallic nanocatalysts. Herein, we developed a facile method to synthesize CoxMn1−xO@GC and Co/MnO@GC nanocomposites by an in situ conversion of Co–Mn PBAs. The as-prepared carbon hybrids, especially the resulting Co/MnO@GC carbonized under 700 °C (Co/MnO@GC-700), preserve the nanocubic morphology of Co–Mn PBAs and show excellent supercapacitance and OER performance. Specifically, an outstanding specific capacitance of 2275 F g−1 can be obtained with Co/MnO@GC-700 as the electrode material at a current density of 4 A g−1. When used as OER catalysts, Co/MnO@GC-700 shows a low overpotential of only 358 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH. Moreover, a fabricated asymmetric supercapacitor device (ASC device), in combination with active carbon, shows a high cell voltage of 1.7 V and a considerably high specific capacitance of 246 F g−1 at 2 A g−1. Our nanoarchitecture design derived from PBAs provides a new opportunity for future applications in high-performance energy storage and transformation systems.