Synthesis and characterization of manganese oxide thin films as novel electrode material for electrochemical devices

Thin films of tetrapropylammonium manganese oxide (TPA-MO) were deposited on stainless steel foils as a supporting substrate by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and pulsed electrodeposition (PED) techniques of preformed TPA-MO nanoparticles in stable colloidal suspensions. TPA-MO/Graphite nanocomposite thin films were prepared by the same techniques from colloidal mixtures of TPA-MO and graphite at various predetermined molar ratios. A colloidal suspension of TPA-MO was prepared by the reduction of TPAMn04 with 2-butanol whereas the colloidal graphite suspension was prepared electrochemically using graphite rods obtained from spent zinc manganese oxide batteries. The rate of deposition, film thickness and uniformity were controlled by optimizing the deposition conditions such as the applied average current density (Ia), length of a current pulse (ton), time between two pulses (torr), pulse height or peak current (Ipulse) and deposition duration. Both TPA-MO and nanocomposite thin films that have been calcined at temperatures up to 400°C were characterized using the BrunauerEmmet-Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption-desorption method, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermal analysis (TGAlDTG) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)