Multifaceted Hybrid Carbon Fibers: Applications in Renewables, Sensing and Tissue Engineering

Chandreyee Manas Das,Guang Yang,Dan Tian,Lixing Kang,Ken-Tye Yong

doi:10.3390/jcs4030117

Chandreyee Manas Das, Guang Yang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs4030117

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Abstract

The field of material science is continually evolving with first-class discoveries of new nanomaterials. The element carbon is ubiquitous in nature. Due to its valency, it can exist in various forms, also known as allotropes, like diamond, graphite, one-dimensional (1D) carbon nanotube (CNT), carbon fiber (CF) and two-dimensional (2D) graphene. Carbon nano fiber (CNF) is another such material that falls within the category of CF. With much smaller diameters (around hundreds of nanometers) and lengths in microns, CNFs have higher aspect (length to diameter) ratios than CNTs. Because of their unique properties like high electrical and thermal conductivity, CNFs can be applied to many matrices like elastomers, thermoplastics, ceramics and metals. Owing to their outstanding mechanical properties, they can be used as reinforcements that can enhance the tensile and compressive strain limits of the base material. Thus, in this short review, we take a look into the dexterous characteristics of CF and CNF, where they have been hybridized with different materials, and delve deeply into some of the recent applications and advancements of these hybrid fiber systems in the fields of sensing, tissue engineering and modification of renewable devices since favorable mechanical and electrical properties of the CFs and CNFs like high tensile strength and electrical conductivity lead to enhanced device performance.

Highlights

The science behind materials plays an important role in almost every aspect of engineering, medicine and industry
Sci. 2020, 4, 117 electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of these fibers, Sui et al used Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers embedded with 0–20 wt% Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) to generate hybrid nano-scale carbon fiber (CF) with the help of electrospinning [3]
With the composite catalyst developed by the researchers, they were able to increase the number of active sites for urea oxidation and improve the device’s electrical and mechanical output characteristics

Summary

Introduction

The science behind materials plays an important role in almost every aspect of engineering, medicine and industry. With just minute additions of CNF, the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of the matrix material can be significantly improved. Sci. 2020, 4, 117 electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of these fibers, Sui et al used Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers embedded with 0–20 wt% Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) to generate hybrid nano-scale CFs with the help of electrospinning [3]. They observed significant improvement in electrical conductivity of about 26 Scm−1 even with 3 wt% addition of MWCNT. We will discuss hybrid CNF-based renewable devices that have enhanced the performance characteristics of these devices

Rechargeable Batteries

Supercapacitors

Fuel Cells

Sensing Using Carbon Fibers

Findings

Conclusions