Synthesis and characterization of 3D MnO2/carbon microtube bundle for supercapacitor electrodes

•3D nanostructured MnO2 was synthesized on the matrix of well-ordered carbon microtube by electrodeposition.•The MnO2/carbon composites with hierarchically porous microtube bundles demonstrated excellent electrochemical properties.•High capacitance can be attributed to the synergistic effect of the tubular porous carbon and 3D nanostructured MnO2.

A simple and scalable method was developed to fabricate MnO2/carbon composites that contained carbon microtube bundles (CMB) produced from sawdust and 3D nanostructured MnO2 by anodic electrodeposition. The 3D-MnO2/CMB composites exhibited excellent electrochemical performance because of the synergistic effect between the natural tubular porous structures of charred materials from sawdust. The high conductivity of these composites provided sufficient space for the MnO2 deposition and the high theoretical specific capacitance of MnO2. The composites had a high specific capacitance of 617.6 F/g at the current density of 1 A/g based on the mass of MnO2 and outstanding cycle performance. Thus, this hybrid is a potential competitive candidate for developing supercapacitors.

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