Mechanochemical-synthesized Al-doped manganese dioxides for electrochemical supercapacitors

Al-doped MnO₂ as electrode materials for supercapacitor were synthesized by high-energy ball milling. The morphologies and structures of prepared MnO₂ were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Electrochemical investigation indicated that doped MnO₂ presented preferable electrochemical performances than un-doped MnO₂, but there were obvious capacitance decline in the first several dozen of cycles for all doped MnO₂ samples. The Al_0.05/Mn_0.95O₂ electrode, especially, showed the largest capacitance among all prepared MnO₂ samples. Excellent conductivity of Al in doped MnO₂ was considered to be responsible for enhanced electrochemical performances of doped MnO₂.