Development of composite manganese dioxide and single-wall carbon nanotube electrodes for energy storage and conversion applications

This thesis focuses on synthesising manganese dioxide both electrolytically and hydrothermally in the presence of single wall carbon nanotubes to produce a high-performance composite cathode. This allows for a significantly higher conductivity of the resulting manganese dioxide material which facilitates electron transfer and the materials ability to discharge effectively. It also provides significantly greater surface area for discharge to occur. Significant care was taken to analyse the crystallographic structure and chemical composition and compare against the literature to investigate the effects that changes had on manganese dioxide. The discharge performance was investigated by comparing constant current and stepped potential discharge at different rates. Further investigation into the ongoing redox reactions and additional validation of the published reduction mechanism was provided by analysing the differential discharge capacity curves of the constant current and stepped potential discharge experiments. Manganese dioxide has been used for over 100 years as a battery material. The work presented here provides a detailed look at using modern nanomaterials for better performance and lifetime for a primary alkaline battery.