Construction of Hierarchical CNT/rGO-Supported MnMoO4 Nanosheets on Ni Foam for High-Performance Aqueous Hybrid Supercapacitors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Oct 18;9(41):35775-35784. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b09005. Epub 2017 Oct 6.

Abstract

Rationally designed conductive hierarchical nanostructures are highly desirable for supporting pseudocapacitive materials to achieve high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors. Herein, manganese molybdate nanosheets were hydrothermally grown with graphene oxide (GO) on three-dimensional nickel foam-supported carbon nanotube structures. Under the optimal graphene oxide concentration, the obtained carbon nanotubes/reduced graphene oxide/MnMoO4 composites (CNT/rGO/MnMoO4) as binder-free supercapacitor cathodes perform with a high specific capacitance of 2374.9 F g-1 at the scan rate of 2 mV s-1 and good long-term stability (97.1% of the initial specific capacitance can be maintained after 3000 charge/discharge cycles). The asymmetric device with CNT/rGO/MnMoO4 as the cathode electrode and the carbon nanotubes/activated carbon on nickel foam (CNT-AC) as the anode electrode can deliver an energy density of 59.4 Wh kg-1 at the power density of 1367.9 W kg-1. These superior performances can be attributed to the synergistic effects from each component of the composite electrodes: highly pseudocapacitive MnMoO4 nanosheets and three-dimensional conductive Ni foam/CNTs/rGO networks. These results suggest that the fabricated asymmetric supercapacitor can be a promising candidate for energy storage devices.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; graphene oxide; manganese molybdate; nickel foam; supercapacitors.