MnO₂/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite with highly enhanced supercapacitor performance

Abstract

A novel sandwich-like MnO₂/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite (NC) based on the integration of high-density MnO₂ nanorods (NRs) onto the surfaces of two-dimensional (2D) g-C₃N₄ sheets has been successfully fabricated through a facile soft chemical route at low temperature. The MnO₂/g-C₃N₄ NC electrode enhanced the supercapacitor (SC) performance, benchmarked against both the bare MnO₂ NRs electrode and the MnO₂/graphene oxide (GO) NC electrode, exhibiting high specific capacitance of 211 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g, with good rate capacity and cycling stability. The sandwich-like hybrid structure, the unique 2D structure of the g-C₃N₄ sheets and the presence of nitrogen in the g-C₃N₄ all contributed to the promising SC performance of the MnO₂/g-C₃N₄ NC. This work demonstrated the advantages of the g-C₃N₄ sheets over the commonly-used GO sheets in the design of novel hybrid composite for enhanced capacitance performance of MnO₂-based electrochemical SCs, and the results could be extended to other electrode materials for SCs.