Electrochemical performances of electrospun carbon nanofibers, interconnected carbon nanofibers, and carbon-manganese oxide composite nanofibers.

Abstract This paper reported the comparison of electrochemical properties of carbon nanofibers (CNFs), interconnected carbon nanofibers (ICNFs), and carbon-manganese oxide composite nanofibers (C/MnO x) fabricated by a conventional and a core-shell electrospinning technique, respectively, with the combination of heat treatment and CO 2 - activation. Concerning material characterizations, the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) revealed the fiber-fiber interconnection patterns, the manganese oxide nanoparticles, and other fiber morphologies. Moreover, the FE-SEM results also exhibited the fiber diameters and particle sizes, which were consistent with the specific areas obtained from the N 2 -adsorption/desorption techniques. The electrochemical performances were measured in aqueous electrolyte by three-electrode system. In addition, X-ray diffraction techniques (XRD) showed the phases of amorphous carbon, graphite structure, and manganese oxides, while the Raman analysis determined the carbon qualities in the samples. Furthermore, the differentiate-canning calorimetry (DSC) and the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) displayed the thermal properties of all samples. As results, the C/MnO x exhibited the greatest specific capacitance of 213.7 F g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1 with the energy density of 30 mWh g−1 at the power density of 249 mW g−1 and the great cycling stability of 97% after 1000 cycles. Highlights • The samples were characterized by TGA, FE-SEM, XRD, Raman, and BET. • The core-shell electrospinning can produce fiber-fiber interconnected CNFs. • C/MnO x composite nanofibers exhibited excellent electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]