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Carbon nanofibers prepared by electrospinning accompanied with phase-separation method for supercapacitors: Effect of thermal treatment temperature

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Abstract

Carbon nanofibers are prepared via the electrospinning method accompanied by the phase-separation process using polyacrylonitrile as a carbon precursor. Effects of preoxidation and carbonation temperatures on electrochemical performance are studied and optimized in detail. The morphology and porous structure are characterized by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and nitrogen adsorption and desorption measurements, respectively; the electrochemical performances are measured by the CHI660E workstation. The results show that the diameter of carbon nanofibers is about 150–200 nm with a uniform and smooth surface. The optimized preoxidation temperature is 280 °C with a carbonation temperature of 700 °C. The highest capacitance is up to 155 F/g, and the symmetric supercapacitor delivers a maximum energy density of 7.78 W h/kg with a power density of 400 W/kg and a maximum power density of 4000 W/kg with an energy density of 2.0 W h/kg. The symmetric supercapacitor also exhibits good cycle stability 91.0% of initial specific capacitance after 5000 cycles.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51203071, 51463012, and 51763014), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M552509 and 2015T81064), Natural Science Funds of the Gansu Province (2015GS05123), and the Program for Hongliu Distinguished Young Scholars in Lanzhou University of Technology (J201402).

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  1. Yongtao Tan

    Present address: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, People’s Republic of China

  2. Dongshan Lin

    Present address: School of Material Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, People’s Republic of China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, People’s Republic of China

    Long Kang & Fen Ran

  2. School of Material Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, People’s Republic of China

    Yongtao Tan, Chang Liu, Wenchun Wang, Long Kang & Fen Ran

  3. Department of Chemistry, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824, USA

    Chang Liu

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Correspondence to Fen Ran.

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Tan, Y., Lin, D., Liu, C. et al. Carbon nanofibers prepared by electrospinning accompanied with phase-separation method for supercapacitors: Effect of thermal treatment temperature. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1120–1130 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.373

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