Xia et al.

Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:33

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NANO EXPRESS

Open Access

Hydrothermal synthesis of MnO2/CNT

nanocomposite with a CNT core/porous MnO2
sheath hierarchy architecture for supercapacitors
Hui Xia1*, Yu Wang2, Jianyi Lin2 and Li Lu3*

Abstract
MnO2/carbon nanotube [CNT] nanocomposites with a CNT core/porous MnO2 sheath hierarchy architecture are
synthesized by a simple hydrothermal treatment. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses reveal that
birnessite-type MnO2 is produced through the hydrothermal synthesis. Morphological characterization reveals that
three-dimensional hierarchy architecture is built with a highly porous layer consisting of interconnected MnO2
nanoflakes uniformly coated on the CNT surface. The nanocomposite with a composition of 72 wt.% (K0.2MnO20.33
H2O)/28 wt.% CNT has a large specific surface area of 237.8 m2/g. Electrochemical properties of the CNT, the pure
MnO2, and the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrodes are investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy measurements. The MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode exhibits much larger specific
capacitance compared with both the CNT electrode and the pure MnO2 electrode and significantly improves rate
capability compared to the pure MnO2 electrode. The superior supercapacitive performance of the MnO2/CNT
nancomposite electrode is due to its high specific surface area and unique hierarchy architecture which facilitate
fast electron and ion transport.
Introduction
In recent years, manganese oxides have attracted considerable research interest due to their distinctive physical and
chemical properties and wide applications in catalysis, ion
exchange, molecular adsorption, biosensor, and energy
storage [1-8]. Specifically, manganese dioxide [MnO2] has
been considered as a promising electrode material for
supercapacitors because of its low cost, environmental
benignity, and excellent capacitive performance in aqueous
electrolytes [9-15]. In aqueous electrolytes, the charging
mechanism of MnO2 may be described by the following
reaction [10]:
MnO2 + M+ + e MnOOM,

(1)

where M represents protons (H+) and/or alkali cations

such as K + , Na + , and Li + . The charge storage is based
either on the adsorption of cations at the surface of the
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected]
1
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, 210094, China
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9
Engineering Drive 1, 117576, Singapore
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

electrode material or on the intercalation of cations in

the bulk of the electrode material. In order to achieve
high capacitive performance, a large surface area and a
fast ion/electron transport of the electrode material are
required. Therefore, extensive research has been focused
on the synthesis of nanostructured MnO2 as the nanoscale powder, which provides not only a high specific surface area, but also a fast ion and electron transport
[16-25]. Various forms of MnO 2 including one-dimensional (nanorods, nanowires, nanobelts, nanotubes)
[16-22], two-dimensional [2-D] (nanosheets, nanoflakes)
[23-25], and three-dimensional [3-D] (nanospheres,
nanoflowers) [26-28] nanostructures have been synthesized. However, the reported specific capacitance values
for the various nanostructured MnO2 electrodes are still
far below the theoretical value (approximately 1,370 F/g)
[29], which may be attributed to the intrinsically poor
electronic conductivity of MnO2. To improve the capacitive performance of MnO2, the key is to add conductive
additives to improve the electron transport [30]. Due to
their excellent electrical conductivity and high specific
surface area, carbon nanotubes [CNTs] are now intensively used with MnO 2 to make nanocomposites.

2012 Xia et al.; licensee Springer. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

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Recently, MnO2 /CNT nanocomposites have been prepared by various methods to improve the electrochemical
utilization of MnO2 and electronic conductivity of the
electrode [31-38]. In most studies, once the coated MnO2
layer becomes thick, it exhibits a dense structure, which
is not beneficial for maximizing the utilization of
MnO2 as only the surface area is involved in charge storage. However, if the coated MnO2 layer is too thin, the
specific capacitance of the composite is difficult to be
increased as the MnO2 loading becomes too low. In previous reports, although the MnO 2 incorporation
improves the capacitance of the CNT assembly, the overall specific capacitance remains typically less than 200
F/g. In order to increase the MnO2 loading in the composite while retaining the formation of a nanoscopic
MnO2 phase, depositing a highly porous MnO2 layer on
the CNTs could be a strategy to achieve this goal. However, a facile and fast synthesis of a uniformly distributed
MnO2 porous layer on the CNTs is still a challenge. It
could be a beneficial design if one of the nanostructures
(nanowire, nanorod, nanoflake, etc.) of MnO2 could be
transferred onto the CNTs as this hierarchy architecture
may be able to provide a large specific surface area (due
to the porous feature of the MnO 2 sheath) and a fast
electron and ion transport (due to the support of the
CNT core and the formation of the nanoscopic MnO 2
phase).
In the present work, a facile hydrothermal synthesis has
been designed to deposit a uniform and highly porous
MnO2 layer consisting of interconnected nanoflakes onto
the surface of the CNTs. The structure, surface morphology, composition, and specific surface area of the as-prepared nanoflaky MnO2/CNT nanocomposites have been
fully investigated. The capacitive behaviors of the CNTs,
the pure MnO 2 , and the MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite
electrodes were also investigated and compared. The
advantages of the present MnO2/CNT hierarchy architecture associated with its superior capacitive behaviors
were discussed.
Experimental section

Commercial multiwalled CNTs (20 to 50 nm in diameter,

Shenzhen Nanotech Port Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China)
were purified by refluxing the as-received sample in 10
wt.% nitric acid for 12 h. The acid-treated CNTs were
then collected by filtration and dried at 120C for 12 h in
vacuum. A typical synthesis process of the MnO2/CNT
nanocomposite is described as follows. Firstly, 0.1 g
CNTs was dispersed in 25 ml deionized [DI] water by
ultrasonic vibration for 2 h. Then, 0.3 g KMnO 4 was
added into the above suspension, and the mixed solution
was stirred by a magnetic bar for 2 h. After that, the
mixed solution was transferred to a 30-mL, Teflon-lined,

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stainless steel autoclave. The autoclave was sealed and

put in an electric oven at 150C for 6 h and then naturally
cooled to room temperature. After the hydrothermal
treatment, the resultant samples were collected by filtration and washed with DI water. MnO2/CNT nanocomposites were finally dried in an oven at 100C for 12 h for
further characterization. To prepare the MnO2 powders,
0.3 g KMnO4 and 0.2 mL H2SO4 (95 wt.%) were placed
into 25 mL DI water to form the precursor. The precursor solution was then treated with a hydrothermal reaction in a 30-mL autoclave at 150C for 4 h.
The crystallographic information of the products was
investigated by X-ray diffraction [XRD] (Shimadzu X-ray
diffractometer 6000, Cu Ka radiation, Kyoto, Japan) with a
scan rate of 2/min. Morphologies of the acid-treated
CNTs, the MnO2 powders, and the MnO2/CNT nanocomposites were characterized by field emission scanning
electron microscopy [FESEM] (Hitachi S4300, Tokyo,
Japan). The morphology and structure of the MnO2/CNT
nanocomposites were further investigated by transmission
electron microscopy [TEM] and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy [HRTEM] (JEM-2010, JEOL,
Tokyo, Japan). Compositional investigation of the samples
was carried out with energy-dispersive X-ray [EDX] spectroscopy (Noran System SIX, Thermo Fisher Scientific,
Shanghai, China). The contents of the interlayer water and
CNTs of the nanocomposites were determined by thermogravimetric analysis [TGA] (Shimadzu DTG-60H, Kyoto,
Japan). Nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherms at
77.3 K were obtained with a Quantachrome Autosorb-6B
(Beijing, China) surface area and a pore size analyzer.
Electrochemical measurements were carried out on
three-electrode cells using a Solartron 1287 electrochemical interface combined with a Solartron 1260 frequency response analyzer (Hampshire, United Kingdom).
To prepare the working electrode, 80 wt.% of the active
material (CNTs, pure MnO 2 powder, or MnO 2 /CNT
nanocomposite), 15 wt.% carbon black, and 5 wt.% polyvinylidene difluoride dissolved in N-methylpyrrolidone
were mixed to form a slurry. The slurry was pasted onto
a Ti foil and dried for 12 h in a vacuum oven. The loading of the working electrode is typically in the range of 2
to 3 mg/cm2. A carbon rod was used as the counter electrode, an Ag/AgCl (saturated KCl) electrode was used as
the reference electrode, and a 1-M Na2SO4 solution was
used as the electrolyte. Cyclic voltammetry [CV] and
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy [EIS] were utilized to evaluate the electrochemical behaviors of the different composite electrodes. CV measurements were
carried out between 0 and 0.9 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) at different scan rates ranging from 10 to 100 mV/s. EIS measurements were carried out in a frequency range from 10
kHz to 0.01 Hz with an ac amplitude of 10 mV.

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Results and discussion

XRD patterns of the CNTs, the pure MnO2 powder, and
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite are shown in Figure 1.
The XRD pattern of the CNTs shows three diffraction
peaks at 26.5, 43.2 and 54.2 which can be indexed as
the (002), (100), and (004) reflections of graphite,
respectively [39]. The XRD pattern of the pure MnO2
powder synthesized by hydrothermal reaction can be
indexed to the monoclinic potassium birnessite (JCPDS
number 80-1098), which consists of 2-D, edge-shared
MnO 6 octahedral layers with K + cations and water
molecules in the interlayer space. The two stronger diffraction peaks correspond to (001) and (002) basal
reflections, while another two weaker diffraction peaks
can be indexed as the (20l/11l) and (02l/31l) diffraction
bands, respectively [24]. From the XRD pattern of the
MnO2/CNT nanocomposite, diffraction peaks from the
birnessite-type MnO2 phase can be observed while the
diffraction peaks from the CNTs are not obvious due to
the coating of the MnO2 layer.
The structural features of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite were further investigated using Raman measurements as shown in Figure 2. Three Raman bands at
1,577 (G band), 1,327 (D band), and 2,652 cm -1 (2D
band) are observed in Figure 2a for the pristine CNTs,
which originate from the Raman-active, in-plane atomic
displacement E2g mode, disorder-induced features of
the CNTs and the overtone of D band [36]. As shown
in Figure 2b, three Raman bands located at 501, 575,
and 645 cm-1 for the MnO2 powder are in good agreement with the three major vibrational features of the
birnessite-type MnO2 compounds previously reported at
500 to 510, 575 to 585, and 625 to 650 cm-1 [40]. Three
Raman bands for the birnessite-type MnO2 and three

Figure 1 XRD patterns of the (a) pristine CNTs, (b) pure MnO2,
and (c) MnO2/CNT nanocomposite.

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Figure 2 Raman spectra of the (a) pristine CNTs, (b) pure

MnO2, and (c) MnO2/CNT nanocomposite.

Raman bands for the CNTs can be observed at the

same time for the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. Therefore, the results of the Raman measurement agree well
with the XRD results confirming that the birnessite-type
MnO2 has been formed during the hydrothermal treatment with or without the CNTs.
Morphologies of the CNTs, the birnessite-type MnO2
powder, and the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite are characterized by FESEM as shown in Figure 3. It can be
observed in Figure 3a that the diameter of the CNTs is
about 20 to 50 nm. In Figure 3b, it can be seen that the
MnO2 synthesized by hydrothermal reaction consists of
monodisperse microspheres of 2 to 3 m in diameter.
The MnO2 microspheres exhibit a flower structure composed of many nanoflakes radiating from the center. Figures 3c,d show the FESEM images of the MnO 2/CNT
nanocomposite at low and high magnifications, respectively. It can be noted that the average diameter of the
nanotubes increases for the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite
compared to the pristine CNTs, indicating that a thin
MnO2 layer has been coated on the CNT surface. The
coated MnO2 layer is uniform, exhibiting a highly porous structure.
TEM images of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite are
shown in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4a, the CNT
core and the highly porous MnO 2 sheath resembling
caterpillar-like morphology can be clearly seen. The K/
Mn ratio obtained from EDX spectroscopy is about 0.2
as shown in the inset in Figure 4a. Figures 4b,c show
the TEM images of a single CNT coated with porous
MnO2 at different magnifications. It can be seen that
the porous MnO2 layer is composed of numerous tiny
nanoflakes, which are interconnected and uniformly distributed on the surface of the CNT. The interlayer

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Figure 3 FESEM images. FESEM images of (a) the pristine CNTs, (b) the flower-like MnO2 powder synthesized by hydrothermal reaction, and (c)
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite synthesized by hydrothermal reaction. (d) A magnified FESEM image of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite
synthesized by hydrothermal reaction.

water content and the CNT content can be evaluated

from the TGA measurement as shown in the inset in
Figure 4b. According to the weight loss of 6% below
250C, the calculated interlayer water is around 0.33
H 2 O per chemical formula (K 0.2 MnO 2 0.33H 2 O). The
weight loss of 28% at about 400C is due to the oxidation of CNT in air [36]. Consequently, the composition
of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite may be expressed as
72 wt.% (K0.2MnO20.33H2O)/28 wt.% CNT. For convenience, MnO2/CNT is still used in the following text.
The thickness of the porous MnO2 layer is estimated to
be about 20 nm as shown in Figure 4c. The inset in Figure 4c shows the electron diffraction [ED] pattern of the
MnO 2 nanoflakes on the CNTs. Figure 4d shows the
HRTEM image of the interface between the CNT and
the MnO2 layer. It can be seen that MnO2 nanoflakes
grow directly from the CNT walls, forming nearly vertically aligned MnO2 nanoflake arrays. As shown in the
inset in Figure 4e, the interplanar spacing of MnO 2
nanoflake has been measured to be 0.67 nm, which is in
good agreement with approximately 0.7 nm as reported
in the literature for birnessite-type MnO2 [23,24]. Compared to the self-assembled MnO2 nanoflakes of pure
MnO2 microspheres, these MnO2 nanoflakes grown on

CNTs are much smaller in dimension, typically with a

thickness of less than 5 nm.
The formation mechanism of the present nanoarchitecture is discussed below. When the mixed solution
with the CNT suspension and KMnO 4 is stirred at
room temperature, a slow redox reaction between CNTs
and KMnO4 could take place and can be expressed as:
2

4MnO
4 + 3C + H2 O 4MnO2 + CO3 + 2HCO3 . (2)

The slow redox reaction usually leads to the precipitation of MnO 2 nanocrystallines on the surface of the
CNTs. When the mixed solution is further undergone
through the hydrothermal reaction, the redox reaction
continues, but it may not be the major contribution to
the later growth of MnO2 nanoflakes on the CNTs. In
the present experiments, stoichiometric amounts of
KMnO4 and CNTs were mixed in a solution based on
Equation 2 for a hydrothermal reaction. After the hydrothermal reaction, no noticeable decrease in CNTs can
be observed from the product, indicating that another
reaction for the formation of MnO2 may be dominant
in the hydrothermal process. Porous MnO2 films composed of nanoflakes have been reported to be easily

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Figure 4 TEM and HRTEM images. (a) TEM image of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. (b) TEM and (c) magnified TEM images of a single CNT
coated with a porous MnO2 layer. (d) HRTEM image of the interface between MnO2 and CNT. Inset in (a) shows the EDX spectrum of the
MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. Inset in (b) shows the TGA spectrum of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. Inset in (c) shows the ED pattern of the
MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. Inset in (d) shows the interplanar spacing of MnO2 nanoflake grown on the CNT.

produced in a hydrothermal reaction of KMnO4 solution

without CNTs [24,25]. The formation of MnO2 in such
hydrothermal reaction is based on the decomposition of
KMnO4, which can be expressed as:

4MnO
4 + 2H2 O 4MnO2 + 4OH + 3O2

(3)

It is speculated that in the present solution system, the

decomposition of KMnO4 is much faster than the redox
reaction between KMnO4 and CNTs. During the hydrothermal reaction, the preformed MnO2 nanocrystallines
may serve as nucleation sites, where the newly formed
MnO2 nucleus due to the KMnO4 decomposition could
get deposited on. The flaky morphology is formed due
to preferred growth along the ab plane of the layered
birnessite-type MnO2 [23,24]. Consequently, the CNT
core/porous MnO2 sheath hierarchy architecture could
be easily produced using this simple hydrothermal
method.
The specific surface area and pore size distribution of
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite were obtained from an
analysis of the desorption branch of N2 gas isotherms
using the density function theory. As shown in Figure
5c, an isotherm is typical for a mesoporous material
with a hysteresis loop at high partial pressures.

According to Brunauer-Emmett-Teller [BET] analysis, a

total specific surface area of 237.8 m2/g is obtained for
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite, which is much larger
than that of the pure MnO2 (42.1 m2/g, see Figure 5a)
and that of the pristine CNTs (95.7 m 2 /g, see Figure
5b). The Barrett-Joyner-Halenda [BJH] pore size distribution (Figure 5d) indicates that the MnO2/CNT nanocomposites exhibit developed mesopores ranging from 2
to 8 nm, which may mainly be attributed to the numerous gaps between the MnO2 nanoflakes.
The hierarchy architecture and high specific surface
area of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite make it promising for applications in catalysis and in energy storage. In
the present study, the electrochemical performance of
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite as an electrode material
in supercapacitors was investigated. Capacitive behaviors
of the pristine CNT, the pure MnO2 , and the MnO2 /
CNT nanocomposite electrodes in a 1-M Na2SO4 electrolyte at different scan rates are shown in Figure 6. The
CV curves of the CNT electrode at different scan rates
from 10 to 100 mV/s as shown in Figure 6a exhibit a
rectangular shape without obvious redox peaks, indicating an ideal capacitive behavior. However, the specific
capacitance of the pure CNT electrode is less than 25 F/

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Figure 5 Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and BJH pore-size distributions. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms of (a) the
pristine CNTs, (b) the MnO2 powder, and (c) the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite. (d) BJH pore-size distributions of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite.

g. Figure 6b shows the CV curves of the pure MnO 2

electrode at different scan rates. The current densities of
the CV curves for the pure MnO2 electrode increase significantly compared to those for the pure CNT electrode, which indicates that the MnO 2 electrode can
deliver much higher capacitance. However, the rectangularity of the CV curves is significantly distorted as the
scan rate increases, especially at a high scan rate of 100
mV/s. The specific capacitance of the MnO2 electrode is
about 123 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s, while it
decreases to 68 F/g at a scan rate of 100 mV/s. Figure
6c shows the CV curves of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode at different scan rates. The current densities of the CV curves for the MnO 2 /CNT
nanocomposite electrode are even larger than those for
the pure MnO 2 electrode, indicating higher specific
capacitance and higher utilization of MnO 2 in the
MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite electrode. The specific
capacitance of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode
is about 223 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s, corresponding to a high specific capacitance of 310 F/g for MnO2
alone. CV curves of the MnO2/CNT electrode maintain
the rectangular shape even at a high scan rate of 100

mV/s with a high specific capacitance of 188 F/g. This

is a significantly improved rate capability compared to
that for the pure MnO2 electrode. Figure 6d compares
the specific capacitances at different scan rates for the
three types of electrode materials. Although the CNT
electrode has a very good rate capability, its specific
capacitance is very low due to its surface adsorption
charge storage mechanism for double layer capacitors.
The pure MnO2 electrode exhibits much larger specific
capacitance compared with the CNT electrode due to
the pseudocapacitance based on faradic redox reactions.
However, the rate capability of the pure MnO2 electrode
is very poor, probably due to its intrinsically poor electronic conductivity and low specific surface area. By
combining MnO2 and CNT, the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite exhibits the two advantages of the two electrode
materials, namely a good rate capability and high specific capacitance. Several research groups have also
reported the supercapacitive performance of the MnO2/
CNT nanocomposite [35-38]. Jin et al. [35] reported a
MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite electrode with 65 wt.%
MnO2 delivering a specific capacitance of 144 F/g at a
scan rate of 20 mV/s. The MnO2/CNT nanocomposite

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Figure 6 Cyclic voltammograms and specific capacitance vs. scan rate of the different electrodes. Cyclic voltammograms for the (a) CNT,
(b) pure MnO2, and (c) MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrodes in a 1-M Na2SO4 solution at different scan rates from 10 to 100 mV/s. (d) Specific
capacitance vs. scan rate of the different electrodes.

electrode prepared by Xie et al. [36] was able to deliver

a specific capacitance of 205 F/g at a scan rate of 2 mV/
s, but only 43.2 F/g at a scan rate of 50 mV/s in a
Na 2 SO 4 electrolyte. The MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite
electrode with 15 wt.% MnO 2 reported by Yan et al.
[38] delivered a specific capacitance of 944 F/g at a scan
rate of 1 mV/s based on the mass of MnO 2 alone or
141 F/g based on the total mass of the composite. From
works reported in the literature so far, it appears difficult to achieve a specific capacitance above 200 F/g for
the MnO2/CNT composite in a Na2SO4 electrolyte. A
high utilization of MnO2 can only be achieved with a
low mass ratio of MnO2 in the composite, which, however, leads to a low specific capacitance of the composite. By increasing the mass ratio of MnO 2 in the
composite with a thicker MnO2 layer, the utilization of
MnO2 is reduced as only the surface area can be used
for charge storage. The MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite
electrode in the present study exhibits a superior supercapacitive performance with improved specific capacitance and rate capability compared to MnO 2 /CNT
nanocomposites in previous studies. The major difference between the MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite in the
present study and those in previous works is the nanostructure of the MnO 2 layer. A highly porous MnO 2
layer composed of interconnected nanoflakes is

introduced in the present study instead of a dense

MnO2 layer composed of closely packed nanocrystallines
in previous works. The superior capacitive behavior of
the present MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode may
be explained by its unique nanoarchitecture. Firstly,
each MnO2 nanoflake grows directly on the CNT surface. The CNTs construct a 3-D highly conductive current collector which significantly increases the electronic
conductivity of the nanocomposite. Secondly, the large
specific surface area and the nanoscopic MnO2 phase of
the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite minimize the solid-state
transport distances for both ions and electrons into
MnO2. This ensures a high utilization of the electrode
materials, a high specific capacitance, and a good rate
capability. Thirdly, the highly porous structure of the
MnO2 layer is able to minimize the diffusion distance of
the electrolyte to the interior surfaces of MnO2, which
facilitates better penetration of the electrolyte into the
electrode material and enhances the ionic conductivity
of the electrode material. With this porous nanostructure of the MnO2 layer, the utilization of MnO2 can still
be high even when the layer becomes thicker. This
unique architecture enables the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode to have not only a large specific surface,
but also a fast electron and ion transport, thus presenting the best electrochemical capacitive performance.

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EIS measurements on the CNT, the pure MnO2, and

the MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite electrodes were performed at 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, and the resulting Nyquist
plots are displayed in Figure 7a. The Nyquist plots consist of (1) a high-frequency intercept on the real Z
axis, (2) a semicircle in the high-to-medium-frequency
region, and (3) a straight line at the very low-frequency
region. The high-frequency intercepts for all the three
electrodes are almost the same, indicating that the
three electrodes have the same combination resistance
of ionic resistance of the electrolyte, intrinsic resistance
of the active materials, and contact resistance between
the active material and the current collector [41]. The
semicircle in the high-to-medium-frequency region corresponds to a parallel combination of charge-transfer
resistance (R ct ) and double-layer capacitance [42]. It
can be seen that the Rct, which is equal to the diameter
of the semicircle, for the three electrodes is in the
order of CNT < MnO 2 /CNT < MnO2 . The R ct of the
MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode is slightly larger

Figure 7 Nyquist plots and frequency dependence of

capacitance retention of the electrodoes. (a) Nyquist plots and
(b) frequency dependence of capacitance retention of the CNT,
pure MnO2, and MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrodes.

Page 8 of 10

than that of the CNT electrode, but much smaller than

that of the pure MnO2 electrode. It is speculated that
the low Rct of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode
is due to its high specific surface area, which facilitates
a faster cation insertion/extraction process into/from
the MnO 2 lattice. For a simple electrode-electrolyte
system, the low-frequency straight line should exhibit a
slope of 45 if the process is under diffusion control, or
a slope of 90 if the system is purely capacitive in nature [43]. The almost vertical line for the CNT electrode
here demonstrates a good capacitive behavior without
diffusion limitation. The finite slope of the straight line
represents the diffusive resistance of electrolyte in the
electrode pores and cation diffusion in the host materials [41]. It can be seen that the slope of the straight
line for the MnO 2 /CNT nanocomposite electrode is
similar to that of the CNT electrode, but much larger
than that of the pure MnO2 electrode. This observation
suggests that the MnO2/CNT nancomposite electrode
has much lower diffusive resistance compared with the
pure MnO2 electrode. It is believed that the highly porous MnO 2 layer decorated on the surface of CNT is
able to facilitate the penetration of the electrolyte, leading to fast diffusion of the electrolyte into the pores of
the MnO 2 layer. For the pure MnO 2 electrode,
although the microspheres of the self-assembled MnO2
nanoflakes exhibit an open structure at the surface, the
center area is quite dense. The latter buffers the electrolyte being diffused into the center area of the sphere.
In addition, the dimension of the MnO2 nanoflakes for
the pure MnO 2 electrode is much larger compared
with that of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode
so that the increased diffusion distances for both electrons and ions would also increase the diffusive
resistance.
Figure 7b shows the capacitance retention as a function of frequency obtained by taking the real part of the
complex capacitance C*(f) = 1/[i2fZ*(f)],where i, f, and
Z* are the imaginary unit, ac frequency, and complex
impedance at a frequency, respectively [30,41,44]. For
the porous electrode, the frequency response of capacitance may be understood using the parameter penetration depth, l = 1/(fR C)1/2, where R and C represent
the pore resistance and pore capacitance per unit pore
length, respectively [44]. At low frequency, when the
electrolyte penetration depth is larger than the pore
length of the porous electrode, most of the pore surface
is utilized, resulting in a maximum capacitance. On the
contrary, at high frequency, when the penetration depth
is smaller than the pore length, only limited electrode
surface is utilized, resulting in a decreased capacitance.
As shown in Figure 7b, the capacitance retention for all
three electrodes reaches the maximum at very low frequency, starts to decrease as the frequency increases,

Xia et al. Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:33

http://www.nanoscalereslett.com/content/7/1/33

and finally, goes down to zero at very high frequency.

The CNT electrode exhibits an excellent rate capability
with capacitance retention of 90% at a frequency of 1
Hz. The pure MnO2 electrode however exhibits a poor
rate capability with capacitance retention of only 32% at
1 Hz. It can be seen that a significantly improved rate
capability can be obtained by combining the MnO 2
nanoporous sheath with the CNT core. The MnO 2 /
CNT nanocomposite is able to retain 65% of its full
capacitance at 1 Hz. The significantly improved rate
capability of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode
could be due to its small charge-transfer resistance and
small diffusive resistance, indicating that the unique
nanoarchitecture of CNT core/porous MnO2 sheath is
able to provide fast transport for both ions and
electrons.

Conclusions
MnO2/CNT nanocomposites with a unique nanoarchitecture consisting of a CNT core/porous MnO2 sheath
have been successfully synthesized using a simple hydrothermal treatment. The nanoporous MnO 2 sheath is
composed of interconnected MnO2 nanoflakes directly
grown from the surface of the CNTs. The birnessitetype MnO2 synthesized by the hydrothermal reaction
contains 0.2 K+ and 0.3 H2O per formula. The nanoflaky
MnO2/CNT nanocomposite containing 72 wt.% MnO2
exhibits a high specific surface area of 237 m2/g with a
pore distribution of 2 to 8 nm. The MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode exhibits much higher specific capacitance compared with those of the CNT and the pure
MnO2 electrodes and a significantly improved rate capability compared to that of the pure MnO 2 electrode.
The high specific capacitance of the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite electrode may be attributed to the highly porous structure of the MnO2 layer and its high specific
surface area, resulting in high utilization of MnO2. The
significantly improved rate capability of the MnO2/CNT
nanocomposite electrode compared to that of the pure
MnO2 electrode could be explained by its small chargetransfer resistance and diffusive resistance obtained
from EIS measurements, resulting from its unique hierarchy architecture where the 3-D electron path network
constructed by the CNT cores and the nanoporous
sheath composed of tiny MnO2 nanoflakes facilitate faster electron and ion transport.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the National University of Singapore and the
Agency for Science, Technology and Research through a research grant R284-000-067-597 (072 133 0044). HX would like to thank Nanjing University
of Science and Technology for the financial support through NUST Research
Funding research grant (AB41385 and 2011ZDJH21).

Page 9 of 10

Author details
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, 200 Xiao Ling Wei, Nanjing, 210094, China 2Institute of
Chemical and Engineering Science (ICES), 1 Pesek Road, Jurong Island,
627833, Singapore 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, National
University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, 117576, Singapore
1

Authors contributions
HX synthesized the MnO2/CNT nanocomposite and performed the structural
and electrochemical characterizations. YW and JYL carried out the BET
experiments. LL conceived the study and revised the manuscript. All authors
read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Received: 5 September 2011 Accepted: 5 January 2012
Published: 5 January 2012
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doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-33
Cite this article as: Xia et al.: Hydrothermal synthesis of MnO2/CNT
nanocomposite with a CNT core/porous MnO2 sheath hierarchy
architecture for supercapacitors. Nanoscale Research Letters 2012 7:33.

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