The synthesis of titanium carbide-reinforced carbon nanofibers

Abstract

Tailoring hard materials into nanoscale building blocks can greatly extend the applicationsof hard materials and, at the same time, also represents a significant challenge in the fieldof nanoscale science. This work reports a novel process for the preparation of carbon-basedone-dimensional hard nanomaterials. The titanium carbide–carbon composite nanofiberswith an average diameter of 90 nm are prepared by an electrospinning technique and a hightemperature pyrolysis process. A composite solution containing polyacrylonitrile andtitanium sources is first electrospun into the composite nanofibers, which aresubsequently pyrolyzed to produce the desired products. The x-ray diffraction patternand transmission electron microscopy results show that the main phase of theas-synthesized nanofibers is titanium carbide. The Raman analyses show that thecomposite nanofibers have low graphite clusters in comparison with the purecarbon nanofibers originating from the electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers.The mechanical property tests demonstrate that the titanium carbide–carbonnanofiber membranes have four times higher tensile strength than the carbonnanofiber membranes, and the Young‘s modulus of the titanium carbide–carbonnanofiber membranes increases in direct proportion to the titanium quantity.