Synthesis of mesostructured manganese phosphonate and its promising energy storage application

Abstract

Mesostructured manganese phosphonate (MnP) with a uniform nanorod morphology has been prepared through an easy surfactant-mediated procedure, in which cetyltrimethylammonium bromide acts as a structure-directing agent and 1-hydroxyethane 1,1-diphosphonic acid is used as the phosphonic bridging molecule. Suitable interaction between the micelles and precursors is proved to play an essential role in the formation of a mesophase. By optimizing the reaction conditions (e.g., Mn/P ratio, pH, and aging time), a mesostructure can be realized in manganese phosphonate. Furthermore, our MnP sample shows great potential as a high-performance pseudocapacitive material due to the abundant accessible active sites and rapid ion/electron transportation arising from the unique mesostructural architecture.