Stretched lignin/polyacrylonitrile blended carbon nanofiber as high conductive electrode in electric double layer capacitor

Abstract

In this study, lignin-based conducting carbon nanofiber mat was prepared by electrospinning followed by a thermal treatment. Lignin is a sustainable carbon precursor. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) acts as a binder polymer, which increases the viscosity of the lignin solution using dimethylformamide solvent and helps in the formation of a stable nanofiber. The mixture solution was electrospun, followed by stabilisation and carbonisation to yield carbon nanofibers (CNFs). A fixed amount of external load was provided to the lignin fiber mat during the stabilisation procedure and then carbonised to yield stretched carbon nanofibers (S-CNFs). On stretching the mat, surface conductivity was enhanced by 3 times, and the surface area by 1.3 times compared to that of non-stretched CNFs. Finally, the electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) was assembled with the resulting (CNFs and S-CNFs) nanofiber mat using 6 M of KOH aqueous solution. S-CNFs mat exhibits a specific capacitance of 266 F g−1, which was higher than that of CNFs, i.e. 258 F g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mVs−1 .

Albumen‐Based Foam Protein Porous Carbon for Supercapacitor Applications

“…Nitrogen-doped porous carbon is now made using a variety of precursors of nitrogen-containing organics, [17][18][19] including polyacrylonitrile, [20][21][22] polyaniline [23][24][25] and polybenzoxazine. [26][27][28] Large-scale industrial manufacturing of these synthesis methods is impeded, meanwhile, by the costly and environmentally hazardous precursors or sophisticated machinery employed in them.…”

Development of low-cost electrospun carbon nanofibers using asphaltene precursor

“…In this study, we report the development of sub-micron CFs using electrospinning manufacturing process. Electrospinning is an effective method capable of achieving nano-scale diameter fibers deposited as nonwoven mats [44][45][46][47][48]. The small diameter fibers result in enhancing the strength and mechanical properties of fibers compared to micron-sized fibers, and the simplicity and cost-efficiency of the electrospinning process offer significant potential for scale-up production of the carbon nanofibers and overcome the spinnability issues of asphaltene precursors [49].…”