Facile and scalable synthesis of ultrafine MnCo2O4 nanoparticles via mechanical alloying as supercapacitive materials

• Main Authors: Adli, Reza Ghaffari, Kianvash, Abbas, Hosseini, Mir Ghasem, Hajalilou, Abdollah, Abouzari-Lotf, Ebrahim
• Format: Article
• Published: Minerals, Metals and Materials Society 2019
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/88557/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03486-9
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The possibility of synthesizing MnCo2O4 nanoparticles from MnCl2·4H2O and CoCl2·6H2O via mechanical alloying was investigated and sampled after 1, 2, 3, and 4 h of milling. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the initial materials were changed to MnCo2O4 after 1 h of milling and calcination. The broadening of the XRD lines showed that MnCo2O4 crystallites were on the order of nanometers. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of the MnCo2O4 samples indicated the cation distribution of Co-O (~ 567 cm−1) and Mn-O (~ 665 cm−1) in octahedral and tetrahedral sites, respectively. The morphology of the samples is spherical, according to field emission scanning electron microscopy results. Electrochemical measurements, including cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, were performed to evaluate specific capacitance, cyclic stability, and charge transfer resistance, respectively. The highest capacitance of about 546 F/g and efficiency of 103% were obtained for the 3-h-milled MnCo2O4 sample.