Carbon Nanofibers

Abstract

This chapter focuses on using carbon nanofibers (CNFs) generated from biomass as an electrode material for supercapacitors. CNFs are a one-dimensional carbon material that generally possesses an interconnected network, porosity, electrical conductivity, high surface area, and mechanical strength. This advantageous property makes CNFs a potential candidate as electrode material for supercapacitors. On the other hand, biomass provides abundant carbon resources that are eco-friendly and renewable. Treating the biomass precursor following the appropriate method, CNFs are synthesized. Electrospinning is the most promising and used method to prepare CNFs from biomass precursors. The biomass precursor provides binder-free CNFs formation for high electrochemical performance. Though carbon material follows the double-layer charge storage mechanism, the tunable property of CNFs enhances the specific capacitance modifying the surface chemistry with heteroatoms or forming a composite with metal or metal oxide. Such changes in surface chemistry also alter the charge storage mechanism and introduce pseudo-capacitance in electric double-layer capacitance (EDLC). Therefore, CNFs show versatile characteristics to prepare both symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors.