B Padmadevi, B Dhanalakshmi, T Kalaivani
This communication establishes synthesis and composition-dependent electrochemical behaviour of MnO2-BaO-ZrO2 (MBZ), a new ternary metal oxide nanocomposite system. MBZ mixed metal oxide nanocomposites (MBZ-1, MBZ-2, and MBZ-3) were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method incorporating BaO and ZrO2 into MnO2 in three distinct molar ratios. The compositional effect on structural, morphological and electrochemical properties was systematically investigated. XRD, FESEM, TEM and XPS analyses revealed that the composites possess predominantly low-crystalline or amorphous characteristics with mixed nanorod and nanoparticle morphologies. Electrochemical measurements in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte through cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a three-electrode set up revealed that the MBZ-3 electrode exhibited the best electrochemical performance among the prepared nanocomposites with a specific capacitance of 77 F g-1 at 2 A g-1. The improved performance is attributed to the optimized Ba-Zr composition, composition-influenced structural and morphological modifications and enhanced ion transport that facilitate charge storage.