One-pot synthesis of Mn-doped goethite composite for enhanced supercapacitor performance and charge storage mechanism

A simplistic synthesis of Mn & Fe (manganese & iron)-based composites with high surface area for energy storage application is presented here. We have successfully synthesized Mn-doped iron oxide composite through co-precipitation method. Nanorod-shaped particles with high surface area is formed with uniform distribution of Fe, Mn, & O. The nanocomposite is then used as electrodes in supercapacitor study. The obtained nanostructures have less than 100 nm particle size with surface area of 153 m(2) g(-1). The composite exhibits high specific capacitance of similar to 387.9 F g(-1) at 2.5 A g(-1) current density with corresponding specific power density of 1250 W kg(-1) and energy density of similar to 146 Wh kg(-1). Further the electrode materials were also demonstrated using Trasatti and Dunn's method revealing the diffusion-controlled storage process as being dominant in the contribution towards the total capacitance for the supercapacitor. The results indicate that Mn-doped iron oxide nanorods have great potential as energy storage material.