Flexible and free-standing 2D titanium carbide film decorated with manganese oxide nanoparticles as a high volumetric capacity electrode for supercapacitor

Developing flexible energy storage materials with high volumetric performances for portable electronic applications is arousing increasing interest in recent years. Herein, we presented a simple in-situ wet chemistry synthetic method to prepare flexible and free-standing MnO_x-Ti₃C₂ hybrid films, consisting of few-layered titanium carbide nanosheets and manganese oxide nanoparticles, which exhibited promising electrochemical performances as electrodes of supercapacitors. Hybridized nanoparticles of Mn₂O₃ and MnO are anchored on the surface of delaminated Ti₃C₂ nanolayers through electrostatic interactions. Such unique film based electrodes have a volumetric capacitance of 602.0 F cm⁻³ at 2 mV s⁻¹. Also, symmetric supercapacitors based on the MnO_x-Ti₃C₂ electrodes show an excellent energy stored capacity (13.64 mWh cm⁻³) and a very high long-term cycle stability with 89.8% capacitance retention after 10000 circles. Hence, these highly flexible and free-standing MnO_x-Ti₃C₂ films could be potential candidates as electrodes for flexible supercapacitors.