Effect of hot drawing process and carbonization temperature in electrochemical behavior of electrospun carbon nanofibers

Abstract

Due to the problems that exist on several systems that store energy, such as low energy density, low storage capacity and limited useful life; carbon nanofibers (CNFs) appear as an alternative to remedy such problems, due to their excellent properties, such as high electrical conductivity, high surface area and flexibility. However, there are some alternatives to reinforce their properties and optimize their application in energy storage systems. In this way, in our work, we look for an alternative to increase the capacitive properties of the CNFs. The hot drawing treatment was applied to the CNFs to improve their electrochemical performance for supercapacitor applications. First, non-woven polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes were manufactured by electrospinning, and then, the hot-drawing treatment was applied to promote molecular alignment. Prepared and stretched PAN membranes were carbonized at different temperatures to obtain CNFs. According to the applied hot drawing treatment and the increase in temperature, the crystalline structure of the CNFs was improved, which led to an increase in the electrochemical properties of the CNFs. The specific capacitance of the CNFs was increased by 88% when hot drawing process was applied and carbonized at 1000°C, compared to the sample without the application of the stretching treatment. Copyright © VBRI Press.