Abstract:
Over the last several decades, Energy storage systems has taken the world’s attraction towards
itself and thus human beings have made a lot of development in terms of efficient and highperformance
technologies which is the outcome of continuous and endless research contribution
of scientists. Herein we study the novel and emerging class of 2D materials named as MXenes and
its nanocomposite formed with MnO2. The research however on MXenes for supercapacitor
applications has focused primarily on Ti3C2 despite of the fact that there are 20+ members of the
large family of MXene materials which can be accounted for energy storage applications. So, the
studies on various MXenes are emerging with inevitable results which are already achieved by
Mo2C, Nb2C and Ti2C in aqueous electrolytes. Though many other MXenes exist which are to be
explored for aqueous supercapacitor applications. This work entails detailed experimental as well
as computational study of V2C and MnO2-V2C nanocomposite highly capable for supercapacitor
applications, so we report electrochemical behavior of vanadium carbide MXene and MnO2-V2C
nanocomposite with varying percentages of MnO2 in the nanocomposite. Excellent specific
capacitance of 551.8F/g was achieved for MnO2-V2C nanocomposite in 1M KOH electrolyte
solution which is twice times higher than the gravimetric capacitance obtained for V2C that is
205F/g and reported values of V2C.
Wet etching method for the preparation of Pristine MXene and Co-precipitation method was
initiated to synthesize MnO2-V2C nanocomposite. The structural as well as morphological
properties of the compounds were investigated using X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), confirming the successful
formation of nanocomposite while retaining the two-dimensional (2D) structure of MXene. The
computational study was also conducted using Density Functional Theory (DFT) for analyzing the
increased in density of states DOS, its band gap structure and its enhanced electronic conductivity.
