Carbon Nanotube/Graphene Supercapacitors Containing Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract : Supercapacitors are of interest because they are energy storage devices with greater power density than batteries. Unfortunately, supercapacitors have significantly lower energy densities than batteries, which limit the applications for supercapacitors. The addition of pseudocapacitance, that is, chemical reactions similar to those in batteries but which behave electrically like a capacitance, can be used to increase the energy density of supercapacitors. This work focuses on increasing the capacitance of carbon nanotube (CNT)- or graphene-based supercapacitors by adding pseudocapacitive manganese oxide nanoparticles. A number of methods have been investigated for fabrication of CNT/graphene/manganese oxide composites. Manganese oxide nanoparticle pseudocapacitance has been successfully incorporated into CNT/graphene-based supercapacitors. Further optimization of the composite compositions and electrode fabrication methods is still required to optimize the energy densities of these devices.