Cotton fabric decorated with manganese oxide nanorods as a supercapacitive flexible electrode for wearable electronics

Highlights: • Wearable fabric supercapacitors decorated with ultrathin manganese oxide nanorods are fabricated. • MnSO₄, MnNt, and MnAc salts are used to grow ultrathin MnO₂ nanorods on the wearable fabrics. • The MnSO₄-based supercapacitor demonstrates 90% retention after 10,000 cycles. We present the fabrication (using a hydrothermal process) and the properties of wearable fabrics decorated with ultrathin manganese oxide (MnO₂) nanorods for supercapacitor applications. The superior mechanical durability of the supercapacitor was confirmed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves, which showed little change during 1000 bending cycles. The pseudocapacitive properties of the ultrathin MnO₂ nanorods were confirmed by recording the CV curves at various scan rates. The galvanostatic charge–discharge curves at various specific currents confirmed the pseudocapacitance of MnO₂. The ultrathin MnO₂ nanorods exhibited a superior capacitance of 508 F·g⁻¹ and an energy density of 35.3 Wh·kg⁻¹. The MnO₂ electrode with optimal properties demonstrated stable long-term cycling performance with 90% retention after 10,000 galvanostatic cycles.