Laser-driven coating of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with manganese oxide from metal organic precursors for energy storage

Carbon nanotubes-transition metal oxide systems are intensively studied due to their excellent properties for electrochemical applications. In this work, an innovative procedure is developed for the synthesis of vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) coated with transition metal o...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Pérez del Pino, Ángel, Gyorgy, Eniko, Alshaikh, Islam, Pantoja Suárez, Fernando, Andújar, José Luís, Pascual, Esther, Amade, Roger, Bertrán Serra, Enric
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2017
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/155897
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/155897
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes
MnO2
Hybrid nanocomposite
Laser irradiation
Energy storage
Description
Summary:Carbon nanotubes-transition metal oxide systems are intensively studied due to their excellent properties for electrochemical applications. In this work, an innovative procedure is developed for the synthesis of vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) coated with transition metal oxide nanostructures. VACNTs are grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and coated with a manganese-based metal organic precursor (MOP) film based on manganese acetate solution. Subsequent UV pulsed laser irradiation induces the effective heating-decomposition of the MOP leading to the crystallization of manganese oxide nanostructures on the VACNT surface. The study of the morphology, structure and composition of the synthesized materials shows the formation of randomly oriented MnO2 crystals, with few nanometers in size, and to their alignment in hundreds of nm long filament-like structures, parallel to the CNT's long axis. Electrochemical measurements reveal a significant increase of the specific capacitance of the MnO2-VACNT system (100 F g−1) as compared to the initial VACNT one (21 F g−1).