Economical synthesized Mn3O4/biomass-derived carbon from vegetable sponge composites and its excellent supercapacitive behavior

The composite-based biomass-derived carbon materials have attracted numerous researchers' interests for their advantages in supercapacitors. Herein, biomass-derived carbon from vegetable sponge (VSCs) was combined with Mn3O4 through a facile strategy, in which the residual base at activating VSC process was reused. The composites (VSCs/Mn3O4) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurements, respectively. Cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge technique were performed for the composites in 1 M Na2SO4 aqueous solutions. The obtained VSCs/Mn3O4-2 exhibited a promising capacity of 162.8 F center dot g(-1) at 0.5 A center dot g(-1) with good rate capability of 89.5% at high current density of 5 A center dot g(-1), which was better than pure Mn3O4 and VSCs for special structure of composites and introduction of Mn3O4 with various valence states of Mn. The present work provided an economical and simple way to prepare biomass carbon/metallic oxide composites.

Automated summary

The research successfully combined biomass-derived carbon from vegetable sponge with Mn3O4, showing that the composite VSCs/Mn3O4 exhibited promising performance in supercapacitors through characterization and testing.