Pasit Pakawatpanurut
Renewable energy has become the forefront issue for much of the economic and social development. However, renewable energy sources are intermittent in nature, which is a drawback that must be addressed by using energy storage systems to enable full potential of renewable energy. Supercapacitors
and batteries offer viable solutions to help balance energy demand and production capacity. This work reported a new way of synthesizing the widely-studied graphene oxide (GO)-manganese dioxide (MnO2) composite that addresses not only the performance issue but also the environmental aspect. Here we showed that the GO-MnO2 composite can be prepared via a discharging plasma in just 10 minutes in aqueous KMnO4 solution without any use of reducing agents, dispersants, or chemical stabilizers. Upon our test using 1 M Na2SO4 aqueous electrolyte, a satisfactorily high specific capacitance of 218 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s was obtained. Furthermore, the composite was able to maintain good capacitance retention of 85% after 1,000 cycles of operation. In comparison with existing methods for the synthesis of this kind of electrode materials, our reported solution plasma technique is effective and, more importantly, contributes
to a better solution toward cleaner environment. Such contributions are consistent with the affordable/clean energy and the climate action SDG goals.

Reference:
“Novel green synthesis of graphene oxide-manganese dioxide using solution plasma process for energy storage” Pimklang, T.; Watthanaphanit, A.; Pakawatpanurut, P. Chemical Engineering Journal 2022, 442, 136244.