Issue 82, 2014

Electrospun activated carbon nanofibers for supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

Porous activated carbon nanofibers have been prepared by electrospinning a H3PO4-containing polyacrylonitrile precursor. A small amount of H3PO4 (<1 wt%) serves as the activation agent during carbonization of the nanofibers. The activated carbon nanofibers have a large surface area (∼709 m2 g−1) and high porosity (0.356 cm3 g−1). A high specific capacitance of 156 F g−1 (at 0.5 A g−1) is obtained at a 1 : 10 mass ratio of H3PO4 to polyacrylonitrile. The energy density of the supercapacitor with the activated carbon nanofibers as the electrodes reaches 10.98 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 10 kW kg−1. This is ∼9 fold larger than that of carbon nanofibers without H3PO4 because the H3PO4-based activation process significantly increases both the micropore volume and the volume ratio of mesopores to micropores.

Graphical abstract: Electrospun activated carbon nanofibers for supercapacitor electrodes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 jun. 2014
Accepted
29 ago. 2014
First published
29 ago. 2014

RSC Adv., 2014,4, 43619-43623

Electrospun activated carbon nanofibers for supercapacitor electrodes

M. Zhi, S. Liu, Z. Hong and N. Wu, RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 43619 DOI: 10.1039/C4RA05512H

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