Porous Fe-Mn-O nanocomposites: Synthesis and supercapacitor electrode application

Transition metal oxide micro-/nanostructures demonstrate high potential applications in energy storage devices. Here, we report a facile synthesis of highly homogeneous oxide composites with porous structure via a coordination polymer precursor, which was prepared with the assistance of tartaric acid. The typical product, Fe-Mn-O composite was demonstrated here. The obtained Fe-Mn-O product was systemically characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, elemental mapping analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that the Fe-Mn-O nanocomposite shows interconnected porous structure, in which iron, manganese, and oxygen are uniformly distributed. In addition, the Fe-Mn-O nanocomposite was then fabricated as capacitor electrodes. Operating in an aqueous neutral solution, the Fe-Mn-O composite electrodes showed an wide working potential window from 0.2 to 1.0 V (vs. SCE), and a specific capacitance of 86.7 Fg(-1) or 0.4 F cm(-2) at a constant current density of 1 Ag-1 with good cycle life. This study offers a new precursor approach to prepare porous metal oxide composites, which would be applied in energy-storage/conversion devices, catalysts, sensors, and so on. (C) 2016 Chinese Materials Research Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.