Synthesis and characterization of MnO(2)/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 MnO(2)/eggplant carbon (MnO(2)/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 MnO(2) was successfully loaded on the surface of EC. The electrochemical studies indicated that the specific capacitance of the MnO(2)/ECcomposite could reach 652.5F/g at 0.5 A/g in 1 M Na(2)SO(4) aqueous electrolyte. In addition, the MnO(2)/EC composite exhibits excellent cyclic stability after 10000 cycles, which might be ascribed to the synergistic effect of MnO(2) and EC for the improvement of electrochemical performance. Taken together, this work demonstrated that MnO(2)/EC composite can be used in the aspect of energy storage for high-performance supercapacitors.