Cathodic Electrochemical Deposition of Highly Ordered Mesoporous Manganese Oxide for Supercapacitor Electrodes via Surfactant Templating

Highly ordered mesoporous manganese oxide films were electrodeposited onto indium tin oxide coated (ITO) glass using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and ethylene glycol (EG) which were used as a templating agent and stabilizer for the formation of micelle, respectively. The manganese oxide films synthesized with surfactant templating exhibited a highly mesoporous structure with a long-range order, which was confirmed by SAXRD and TEM analysis. The unique porous structure offers a more favorable diffusion pathway for electrolyte transportation and excellent ionic conductivity. Among the synthesized samples, Mn2O3-SDS+EG exhibited the best electrochemical performance for a supercapacitor in the wide range of scan rate, which was attributed to the well-developed mesoporous structure. The Mn2O3 prepared with SDS and EG displayed an outstanding capacitance of 72.04 F g-1, which outperform non-porous Mn2O3 (32.13 F g-1) at a scan rate of 10 mV s-1.