Facile and economic synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene/manganese dioxide composites in aqueous solution for energy storage devices

•A novel nitrogen doped graphene/MnO2 composites were fabricated.•One-step hydrothermal reaction is needed at low temperature in aqueous solution.•The novel composites show a capacitance of as high as 171.65 F g−1.•The novel composites exhibit good rate performances with long cycling stability.

Nitrogen doped graphene/manganese dioxide (N-GR/MnO2) composites were fabricated by a facile and economic method involving one-step hydrothermal reaction at low temperature (90 °C) in aqueous solution. Characterization and systematic investigations of the samples by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that MnO2 nanoparticles were assembled with a small mass fraction of GR flakes and the incorporation of nitrogen atoms into GR skeleton was accomplished synchronously. The so-obtained MnO2-loaded and nitrogen-doped novel composites exhibited a capacitance as high as 171.65 F g−1 at a current density of 2 mA cm−2. Moreover, they exhibited good rate performances with long cycling stability for energy storage. Thus, these high-performance materials could act as promising candidates for energy storage devices.

Graphical abstractNitrogen doped graphene/manganese dioxide (N-GR/MnO2) composites were fabricated by a facile and economic method involving one-step hydrothermal reaction at low temperature (90 °C) in aqueous solution. The so-obtained MnO2-loaded and nitrogen-doped novel composites exhibited a capacitance as high as 171.65 F g−1 and exhibited good rate performances with long cycling stability for energy storage.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide