Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Supported Mn-Co Nanoparticles for Supercapacitors Application

In this study, the microwave-assisted heating method has been used for the synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon (N-doped C) supported Mn-Co nanoparticles with the aim to use it as the electrode material for supercapacitor application. N-doped C has been obtained from alder wood chips as the biological waste. At first, activated high surface area carbon has been obtained by using chemical activation method with NaOH at higher temperatures, followed by nitrogen doping at a temperature of 800 о С by using dicyandiamide (DCDA) as a nitrogen precursor. It should be noted that the prepared N-doped C has a graphene-like structure. Then, Mn-Co nanoparticles have been deposited on the N-doped C surface using microwave-assisted heating. The Mn-Co@N-doped C nanocomposites have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Moreover, electrochemical performance has been investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in a 1 M Na 2 SO 4 solution at the scan rates of 1, 5, 10, 20, 100 and 150 mV s −1 . It was found that the obtained specific capacitance ( C s ) value for the Mn-Co@N-doped C nanocomposite was equal to 497.5 F g −1 at a scan rate of 1 mV s −1 and decreased to 254.4 F g −1 at a scan rate of 150 mV s −1 . The Mn-Co@N-doped C nanocomposite preserves 51.1 % of its specific capacitance as the scan rate increases from 1 mV s −1 to 150 mV s −1 . The obtained results confirmed a good performance of the prepared Mn-Co@N-doped C nanocomposite as the electrode material for supercapacitors application.