Synthesis and characterization of MnO₂/Eggplant carbon composite for enhanced supercapacitors

In this paper, the eggplant carbon (EC)was derived from eggplant skin by one-step carbonization method. Subsequently, the MnO₂/eggplant carbon (MnO₂/EC) composite was prepared viain-situ hydrothermal method. The morphology and structure as well as electrochemical performance were investigated through a series of characterization and tests. The results showed that the urchin shaped structures of MnO₂ was successfully loaded on the surface of EC. The electrochemical studies indicated that the specific capacitance of the MnO₂/ECcomposite could reach 652.5F/g at 0.5 A/g in 1 M Na₂SO₄ aqueous electrolyte. In addition, the MnO₂/EC composite exhibits excellent cyclic stability after 10000 cycles, which might be ascribed to the synergistic effect of MnO₂ and EC for the improvement of electrochemical performance. Taken together, this work demonstrated that MnO₂/EC composite can be used in the aspect of energy storage for high-performance supercapacitors.