Abstract: Nanosized Ni-Mn oxide powders have been successfully prepared by thermal decomposition of the Ni-Mn citrate gel precursors. The powder materials derived from calcination of the gel precursors with various molar ratios of nickel and manganese at different temperatures and time were characterized using thermal analysis (TG-DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET). The optimized processing conditions of calcination at 400℃ for 1 h with Ni/Mn molar ratio 6 were proved to produce the nanosized Ni-Mn oxide powders with a high specific surface area of 109.62 m2/g and nanometer particle sizes of 15～30 nm. The capacitance characteristics of the nanosized Ni-Mn oxide electrode in various concentrations of KOH solutions were studied by the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and exhibited both a doublelayer capacitance and a Faradaic capacitance which could be attributed to the electrode consisting of Ni-Mn oxides and residual carbons from the organic gel thermal decomposition. A specific capacitance of 194.8 F/g was obtained for the electrode at the sweep rate of 10 mV/s in 4 mol/L KOH electrolyte and the capacitor showed quite high cyclic stability and is promising for advanced electrochemical capacitors.

Key words: Citrate gel process, Nanosized Ni-Mn oxide electrode, Electrochemical capacitor...