SYNTHESIS OF MANGANESE OXIDE NANOSTRUCTURES ON CARBON PAPER FOR SUPERCAPACITOR APPLICATIONS

A simple hydrothermal growth process was developed to deposit conformal manganese oxide nanospheres with a diameter of 10 to 20 nm on mesoporous carbon paper. The coating of nanospheres increased the cyclic-voltammogramic response of carbon paper by a factor of 5 with a slight dependence on the scan rate. For comparison, a related chemistry was also developed to fabricate a dense packing of manganese oxide nanorods with a diameter of 20 to 50 nm and a length of approximately 500 nm. The nanorods also increased the cyclic-voltammogramic response of carbon paper but only by a factor of approximately 3.