Preparation and thermal dissipation of hollow carbon fibers from electrospun polystyrene/poly(amic acid) carboxylate salt core-shell fibers

Polyimides (PIs) possess great mechanical properties, outstanding thermal stability, solvent inertness, and the ability to be converted into carbon by thermal carbonization. Although studies on carbon materials derived from PIs have been conducted, PI-derived one-dimensional (1D) carbon materials with high surface areas, especially carbon tubes or hollow carbon fibers, have been rarely investigated. In this work, we provide a simple and facile method to prepare hollow carbon fibers by carbonizing hollow PI fibers. Blend solutions of poly(amic acid) carboxylate salts (PAAS) and polystyrene (PS) are electrospun to form core-shell PS/PAAS fibers, in which the PS and PAAS domains are used as sacrificial and precursor materials, respectively. By imidizing the PAAS to PI and selectively removing PS, hollow PI fibers can be obtained. Finally, the hollow PI fibers are carbonized to form hollow carbon fibers. The fiber samples at different stages are examined by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectrometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The infrared images show that the thermal energy transfer rates of the hollow carbon fibers are higher than those of the hollow PI and PS/PI core-shell fibers, which can be attributed to the better thermal conductivity of carbon resulting from the covalent sp2 bonding between carbon atoms and the high surface area of the hollow structure.