3.1. Morphology and Structure
The morphology and structure images of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2 /CNFs and 20 % MnO
2 /CNFs were obtained.
Figure 2 characterizes the morphology of MnO
2 NTs by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) at different magnifications.
Figure 2a displays the tubular structure of MnO
2 NTs with the longest of about 3.3 μm, the morphologies of MnO
2 NTs have better uniformity, have almost no impurity particles. As shown in
Figure 3b, hollow tubes are gained with an average diameter of 100 nm (±100).
Figure 3a,b show that the 5 % MnO
2/CNFs, and 3c-d show the 20 % MnO
2/CNFs, both of them are the uniform nanofiber with a diameter of approximately 300–500 nm, and uniformly distributed nanoparticles are in the high component, it reveals that the uniform MnO
2/CNFs can be prepared [
32,
33].
The crystal structures and phase information of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), the results are demonstrated in
Figure 4, the diffraction peaks of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs are in line with the standard card of MnO
2 (JCPDS NO. 44-0141), the XRD patterns of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs show no noticeable change. The typical diffraction peaks correspond to the (110), (200), (220), (310), (211), (301), (411), (431), (521), (002), (541), (312) and (332) crystal planes of manganese dioxide, respectively. This indicated that manganese dioxide was integrate into the composite material, which present the successful preparation. The peak of 20 % MnO
2/CNFs is strong and narrow, confirmed that the good crystallinity and high purity [
34,
35].
In order to obtain further investigation into the structure of 20 % MnO
2/CNFs samples, TEM characterization is carried out in
Figure 5. The prepared 20 % MnO
2/CNFs showed a nanotube structure with the diameter of 250 nm which is filled with the MnO
2 particles in
Figure 5b. In
Figure 5c, the high resolution TEM image of the MnO
2/CNFs exhibits that the lattice spacings are 0.182 nm and 0.161 nm, which are consistent with the spacing of the (411) and (431) planes of MnO
2, obviously, demonstrating the composition of the nanofibers to be MnO
2 again [
35,
36,
37].
3.2. Electrochemical Performance
The lithium electrochemical performance of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs were evaluated using coin cells. The CV curves of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/ CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/ CNFs for the first several cycles at a scan rate of 0.1 mV s
-1 in the potential range 0.01-3.0 V, respectively, in
Figure 6a–c. Compared with MnO
2 NTs and 5 % MnO
2/CNFs in
Figure 6a,b, in the first cathodic cycle creates a broad peak at 0.45 V in
Figure 6c, which vanishes in the following cathodic cycles, it illustrates that the reaction is irreversible and the energy difference prompts the formation of the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) on the electrode surface [
30,
31]. In addition to this, a peak decreases sharply below 0.35 V is because of the reduction of Mn
4+ to Mn
0 (MnO
2 + 4Li
+ + 4e
— → Mn + 2Li
2O) [
30,
38]. In the first anodic cycles, the strong peak at 1.32 V is corresponding to the dissolution of Li
+ from Li
2O and the oxication of Mn
0 to Mn
2+ (Mn + 2Li
2O → MnO
2 + 4Li
+ + 4e
—) [
30,
31,
38]. In the other anodic cycles, the reaction is reversible because of the peaks have no obvious changes and almost in the same place, the excellent electrochemical stability was revealed.
The discharge/charge graph of 5 % MnO
2/ CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/ CNFs at a current density of 0.1Ag
-1 are displayed in
Figure 7a,b. The curves of lap 1, lap 20 and lap 50 were regarded as the samples, there is an obvious discharge voltage plateaus at about 0.76V (
Figure 7a) and 0.57V (
Figure 7b), the specific capacity of the first discharge are 1023 mA h g
-1 and 1094 mA h g
-1, respectively, the following cycles, the specific capacity are around 531-558 mA h g
-1 and 658-704 mA h g
-1, an SEI film was formed due to the lost capacity, which is irreversible, it is the same as cyclic voltammetry curves (
Figure 7a,b), the mechanism of alloying lithiation is proved. Meanwhile, the discharge/charge capacity of the 20% MnO
2/CNFs remain higher than the 5% MnO
2/CNFs, it is indicated that not only the high performance, but also the excellent battery reversibility [
39,
40].
The cycling performance of 5 % MnO
2/CNFs for 160 cycles and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs for 200 cycles at a current density of 0.1 A g
-1 are shown in
Figure 8a,b. The initial discharge/charge specific capacities of 20 % MnO
2/CNFs are 1094 mA h g
-1 and 687 mA h g
-1, higher than 5 % MnO
2/CNFs. By the cycles continues, the specific capacities 5 % MnO
2/CNFs maintains at around 610 mA h g
-1 from the 117 th cycle to the 160 th cycle, while 20 % MnO
2/CNFs remains at around 835 mA h g
-1 from the133 th cycle to the 200 th cycle. During the whole process, coulombic efficiency of them hold at around 98.9 % and 99.5 %, respectively, 20 % MnO
2/CNFs owns the higher coulombic efficiency obviously, these confirm that the more percentage of MnO
2/CNFs, the better reversibility and structural stability [
41,
42,
43].
To compare the discharge/charge
capacity, the rate performance of MnO
2 NTs, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs are tested at various current rates ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 A g
-1 (
Figure 9a–c). MnO
2 NTs does not contain the MnO
2/CNFs in it, so the structure is damaged easily and the cycle is unstable (
Figure 9a). On the contrary, because of the carbon nanofibers, 5 % MnO
2/CNFs and 20 % MnO
2/CNFs have the good structural stability (
Figure 9b,c), but 20 % MnO
2/CNFs show the superior capacity, the corresponding
invertible capacities are 796, 611, 552, 486 mA h g
-1 at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 A g
-1. When test again at
0.1, 0.2, 0.3 A g
-1, the reversible capacity of 835, 620,565 mA h g
-1 are reached. In addition, the MnO
2/CNFs shows better rate capability compared to the MnO
2 NTs nanoparticle electrode at various rates from 0.1 to
0.5 A g
-1 (
Figure 9).