Iranian researchers have synthesized nanostructured manganese dioxide by analyzing and controlling electrolyte acidity (pH) which results in increasing its electrochemical power and aids in the fabrication of supercapacitors with ultra high capacity. Hadi Adelkhani, a faculty member of Iran’s Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), studied the acidity change procedure through electrochemical precipitation of MnO2 and prepared samples of nanostructured manganese dioxide at constant electrolyte acidities.
The effect of electrolyte acidity on the electrochemical performance and properties of samples as supercapacitors were investigated in addition to the examination of their physicochemical properties. "The preparation of manganese dioxide from electrolyte containing MnSO4 was made under conditions of measuring electrolyte acidity continuously during the process and fixing it at a definite value.
The results of the study show that electrolyte acidity is an important factor which changes through the electrochemical precipitation process. The acidity fixation at a specific value provides the chance for alternating physicochemical properties of manganese dioxide favorably. On the other hand, it would be possible to prepare different nanometric structures with various physicochemical properties from manganese dioxide. For example, by electrochemical precipitation at a specific value (pH=6) the produced sample will have ultra high electrochemical power which is a result of the changes made in its porosity and nanomaterial structure.
The details of this study are available at Journal of the Electrochemical Society, pages 791 to 795, volume 156, 2009.
