Multifunction lignin-based carbon nanofibers with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption and surpercapacitive energy storage capabilities

Abstract

It is difficult for green sustainable lignin-based materials to simultaneously obtain efficient electromagnetic wave absorption (EMWA) and supercapacitive energy storage (SCES), which has not yet been reported. Herein, the light-weight lignin-based carbon nanofibers (LCNFs) with proper pore size, well graphitization degree, and heteroatom doping were tailored through electrospinning and carbonization processes. Interestingly, the graphitization degree and porous structure of LCNFs could be easily adjusted by changing the activating temperature, and the higher conductivity was achieved for preparing LCNFs at higher activating temperature due to the differences in the crystal size and activating degree of LCNFs. As a result, in the field of EMWA, the LCNFs-950 exhibited the minimum reflection loss (RL) value was −41.4 dB and the absorbing frequency was 9.05 GHz at 2.5 mm thickness, which meant this absorbent could absorb and/or dissipate more than 99.9% of incident electromagnetic wave (EMW). Furthermore, the LCNFs-950 also exhibited excellent SCES ability. In two-electrode system, the optimal LCNFs-950 symmetric supercapacitor specific capacitance reached 139.4 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g, meanwhile, the energy density was 41.4 Wh/kg at a power density of 3500 W/Kg. These multifunctional features of LCNFs will be highly promising for the next-generation environmental remediating materials.