High-yielding carbon nanofibers grown on NIPS-derived porous nickel as a flexible electrode for supercapacitors

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials grown on a three-dimensional (3D) skeleton with a high specific surface area are well accepted propitious electrodes for supercapacitor applications. Herein, we reported a novel strategy for fabricating a flexible and robust 3D nickel@carbon nanofiber (3DNi@CNF) electrode using a modified nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS)-powder metallurgy and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The high porosity of the 3DNi film could maintain high-yielding CNFs with 266.7% sustenance, and remain stable in the electrolyte for a supercapacitor. The flexible 3DNi@CNF electrode shows a maximum specific capacitance of 134.3 F g⁻¹ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹ between −0.9 V and 0.1 V. Even after 5000 cycles at 4 A g⁻¹, the 3DNi@CNF electrode maintained 90 F g⁻¹ cycling capacity, and exhibited a high capacitance stability of 96.5%. This rational strategy for the combination of a high porosity 3D metal skeleton and electroactive materials paves a new way for preparing high mass-loaded flexible electrodes in energy storage devices.