Hierarchical MnMoO4/CoMoO4 heterostructured nanowires with enhanced supercapacitor performance

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1387
• Publication Date: 2011-07-05T09:35:41Z
• Authors: Li-Qiang Mai; Fan Yang; Yun-Long Zhao; Xu Xu; Lin Xu; Yan-Zhu Luo
• Keywords: Molybdenum; Manganese Compounds; X-Ray Diffraction; Nanowires; Electrochemistry; Nanotechnology; Cobalt; Electric Capacitance; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Recent attention has been focused on the synthesis and application of complex heterostructured nanomaterials, which can have superior electrochemical performance than single-structured materials. Here we synthesize the three-dimensional (3D) multicomponent oxide, MnMoO(4)/CoMoO(4). Hierarchical heterostructures are successfully prepared on the backbone material MnMoO(4) by a simple refluxing method under mild conditions; and surface modification is achieved. We fabricate asymmetric supercapacitors based on hierarchical MnMoO(4)/CoMoO(4) heterostructured nanowires, which show a specific capacitance of 187.1 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1), and good reversibility with a cycling efficiency of 98% after 1,000 cycles. These results further demonstrate that constructing 3D hierarchical heterostructures can improve electrochemical properties. 'Oriented attachment' and 'self-assembly' crystal growth mechanisms are proposed to explain the formation of the heterostructures.