Preparation of amorphous cobalt/carbon nanofibers composite as binder-free and conductive-free electrode materials for high supercapacitor

Abstract

One dimensional carbon nanofibers embedded amorphous cobalt oxide with high electrochemical performances were successfully prepared by electrospinning Co(NO3)2 in PAN/DMF solution followed by a high-temperature heat treatment process. The different molar ratio of AN/Co(NO3)2 were synthesis. The optimized Co/CNFs(30), in which the molar ratio of AN/Co(NO3)2 was 30/1, exhibited a specific capacitance of 1096 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and almost no decay in specific capacitance after cycling 2500 times at 5 A g−1. The Co/CNFs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermal-gravity-analysis and the N2 adsorption–desorption. The result showed that cobalt element was successfully dispersed in the carbon nanofibers with an amorphous state.