Activated carbon and its hybrid composites with manganese (IV) oxide as effectual electrode materials for high performance supercapacitor

Waste wood-dust of Dalbergia sisoo (Sisau) is presented, as a novel, low-cost, renewable, and sustainable source of agro-waste for the production of a highly porous activated carbon electrodes (Ds-electrodes) for supercapacitor. Ds-electrode was initially tested as supercapacitor electrode, which showed a lesser specific capacitance of 104.4 Fg^?1. Therefore, hybrid-composite-electrodes (HCEs) were fabricated by adopting the nanostructured “manganese IV oxide (MnO₂)-activated carbon (Ds) composite” in various ratios as the core electrode materials. The HCEs was prepared via a simple facile mechanical mixing method and polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) polymeric solution was used as the electrode material binder. The experimental results showed that the 1:1 Ds: MnO₂ composite displayed highest specific capacitance of 300.2 Fg^?1, capacity retention of 96.3 % after 1000 cycles, 16.3 WhKg^?1 of specific energy density at power density of 148.2 WKg^?1 and low equivalent series resistance (ESR) value of 0.41 Ω at equivalent (1:1, Ds:MnO₂) loading of MnO₂ to Ds. It is clear that the equivalent (1:1) concentration of MnO₂ has improved the capacitive performance of the composite via pseudocapacitance charge storage mechanism as well as the enhancement on the specific surface area of the electrode. However, further increasing of the MnO₂ content (1:2, Ds:MnO₂) in the electrode was found to distort the capacitive performances and deteriorate the specific surface area of the electrode, mainly due to the aggregation of the MnO₂ particles within the composite.