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Abstract: This letter reports a method to produce lignin and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) based porous core-shell carbon fibers via co-electrospinning followed by controlled carbonization. Lignin formed the shell of the fiber while CNF network formed the porous core. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was added to the lignin solution to increase its electrospinability. CNFs were surface acetylated and dispersed in silicon oil to obtain a homogenous dispersion for electrospinning the porous core. Hollow lignin fibers were also electrospun using glycerin as the core material. FT-IR measurements confirmed the CNF acetylation. SEM micrographs showed the core-shell and hollow fiber nanostructures before and after carbonization. The novel carbon fibers synthesized in this study exhibited increased surface area and porosity that are promising for many advanced applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reports the fabrication and mechanical properties of hybrid multi-scale epoxy composites reinforced with conventional carbon fiber (CF) fabrics surface-attached with electrospun carbon nanofiber (ECN) mats. The ECNs were prepared via thermal treatments of polyacrylonitrile copolymer nanofibers, which were produced by the electrospinning technique and collected as overlaid mats on the T300 CF fabrics. The ECN-CF fabrics/mats were used as innovative reinforcement fillers for the fabrication of hybrid multi-scale composites (with SC-15 epoxy resin) through the composite-manufacturing technique of vacuum assisted resin transfer molding. Three-point bending test and short-beam shear test were carried out to evaluate the strengthening/toughening effects of ECNs on mechanical properties of the novel composites. The results indicated that out-of-plane mechanical properties of the ECN-CF/epoxy composites were considerably higher than the control sample of traditional CF/epoxy composites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A universal technique is developed to coat uniform layer of catalyst on any targeted substrate. The technique is based on a novel concept of catalyst deposition by using polymer–metal complexes in the form of invertible polymeric nanostructures through molecular self-assembly. Growth of carbon nanofibres on carbon microfibres was demonstrated to show this technique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]