Design of Amorphous Manganese Oxide@Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Fiber for Robust Solid-State Supercapacitor.

Abstract

Solid-state fiber-based supercapacitors have been considered promising energy storage devices for wearable electronics due to their lightweight and amenability to be woven into textiles. Efforts have been made to fabricate a high performance fiber electrode by depositing pseudocapacitive materials on the outer surface of carbonaceous fiber, for example, crystalline manganese oxide/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MnO2/MWCNTs). However, a key challenge remaining is to achieve high specific capacitance and energy density without compromising the high rate capability and cycling stability. In addition, amorphous MnO2 is actually preferred due to its disordered structure and has been proven to exhibit superior electrochemical performance over the crystalline one. Herein, by incorporating amorphous MnO2 onto a well-aligned MWCNT sheet followed by twisting, we design an amorphous MnO2@MWCNT fiber, in which amorphous MnO2 nanoparticles are distributed in MWCNT fiber uniformly. The proposed structure gives the amorphous MnO2@MWCNT fiber good mechanical reliability, high electrical conductivity, and fast ion-diffusion. Solid-state supercapacitor based on amorphous MnO2@MWCNT fibers exhibits improved energy density, superior rate capability, exceptional cycling stability, and excellent flexibility. This study provides a strategy to design a high performance fiber electrode with microstructure control for wearable energy storage devices.