Flexible Nano‐felts of Carbide‐Derived Carbon with Ultra‐high Power Handling Capability

Nano-fibrous felts (nano-felts) of carbide-derived carbon (CDC) have been developed from the precursor of electrospun titanium carbide (TiC) nano-felts. Conformal transformation of TiC into CDC conserves main features of the precursor including the high interconnectivity and structural integrity; the developed TiC-CDC nano-felts are mechanically flexible/resilient, and can be used as electrode material for supercapacitor application without the addition of any binder. After synthesis through chlorination of the precursor at 600 °C, the TiC-CDC nano-fibers show an average pore size of ∼1nm, a high specific surface area of 1390 m2/g; and the nano-fibers have graphitic carbon ribbons embedded in a highly disordered carbon matrix. Graphitic carbon is preserved from the precursor nano-fibers where a few graphene layers surround TiC nanocrystallites. Electrochemical measurements show a high gravimetric capacitance of 110 F/g in aqueous electrolyte (1 M H2SO4) and 65 F/g in organic electrolyte (1.5 M TEA-BF4 in acetonitrile). Because of the unique microstructure of TiC-CDC nano-felts, a fade of the capacitance of merely 50% at a high scan rate of 5 V/s is observed. A fade of just 15% is observed for nano-felt film electrodes tested in 1 M H2 SO4 at 1 V/s, resulting in a high gravimetric capacitance of 94 F/g. Such a high rate performance is only known for graphene or carbon-onion based supercapacitors, whereas binders have to be used for the fabrication of those supercapacitors.

[1]  Y. Gogotsi,et al.  Importance of pore size in high-pressure hydrogen storage by porous carbons , 2009 .

[2]  Z. Xia,et al.  X-ray diffraction patterns of graphite and turbostratic carbon , 2007 .

[3]  P. Taberna,et al.  Electrochemical Characteristics and Impedance Spectroscopy Studies of Carbon-Carbon Supercapacitors , 2003 .

[4]  R. Ruoff,et al.  Graphene-based ultracapacitors. , 2008, Nano letters.

[5]  Andreas Greiner,et al.  Electrospinning: a fascinating method for the preparation of ultrathin fibers. , 2007, Angewandte Chemie.

[6]  J. Robertson,et al.  Interpretation of Raman spectra of disordered and amorphous carbon , 2000 .

[7]  Yury Gogotsi,et al.  Electrochemical performance of carbon onions, nanodiamonds, carbon black and multiwalled nanotubes in electrical double layer capacitors , 2007 .

[8]  S. Kaskel,et al.  High surface area carbide-derived carbon fibers produced by electrospinning of polycarbosilane precursors , 2010 .

[9]  Wan-Jin Lee,et al.  Supercapacitor performances of activated carbon fiber webs prepared by electrospinning of PMDA-ODA poly(amic acid) solutions , 2004 .

[10]  Seong-Ho Yoon,et al.  Capacitance and H2SO4 adsorption in the pores of activated carbon fibers , 2006 .

[11]  S. Choi,et al.  Electrospun PVdF-based fibrous polymer electrolytes for lithium ion polymer batteries , 2004 .

[12]  H. Fong,et al.  Synthesis of continuous TiC nanofibers and/or nanoribbons through electrospinning followed by carbothermal reduction. , 2010, Nanoscale.

[13]  Peihua Huang,et al.  Ultrahigh-power micrometre-sized supercapacitors based on onion-like carbon. , 2010, Nature nanotechnology.

[14]  Y. Dzenis,et al.  Spinning Continuous Fibers for Nanotechnology , 2004, Science.

[15]  E. Morallón,et al.  Kinetics of Double-Layer Formation: Influence of Porous Structure and Pore Size Distribution† , 2010 .

[16]  Y. Gogotsi,et al.  Tailoring of nanoscale porosity in carbide-derived carbons for hydrogen storage. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[17]  Pierre-Louis Taberna,et al.  Continuous carbide-derived carbon films with high volumetric capacitance , 2011 .

[18]  A. Neimark,et al.  Density functional theory model of adsorption on amorphous and microporous silica materials. , 2006, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[19]  D. Reneker,et al.  Nanometre diameter fibres of polymer, produced by electrospinning , 1996 .

[20]  K. Lian,et al.  Electrochemical characterizations of carbon nanomaterials by the cavity microelectrode technique , 2008 .

[21]  Y. Gogotsi,et al.  Enhanced volumetric hydrogen and methane storage capacity of monolithic carbide-derived carbon , 2010 .

[22]  A. Neimark,et al.  Characterization of nanoporous materials from adsorption and desorption isotherms , 2001 .

[23]  Lawrence T. Drzal,et al.  Multilayered Nanoarchitecture of Graphene Nanosheets and Polypyrrole Nanowires for High Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes , 2010 .

[24]  B. Wu,et al.  CAVITY MICROELECTRODE FOR STUDYING POWDER MATERIALS AT A HIGH POTENTIAL SCAN RATE , 1999 .

[25]  J. Singer,et al.  Titanium Carbide Derived Nanoporous Carbon for Energy-Related Applications , 2006 .

[26]  Yury Gogotsi,et al.  Effect of pore size and surface area of carbide derived carbons on specific capacitance , 2006 .

[27]  P. Taberna,et al.  Monolithic Carbide-Derived Carbon Films for Micro-Supercapacitors , 2010, Science.

[28]  Wan-Jin Lee,et al.  Supercapacitors Prepared from Carbon Nanofibers Electrospun from Polybenzimidazol , 2004 .

[29]  P. Taberna,et al.  Anomalous Increase in Carbon Capacitance at Pore Sizes Less Than 1 Nanometer , 2006, Science.

[30]  Yury Gogotsi,et al.  Carbide‐Derived Carbons – From Porous Networks to Nanotubes and Graphene , 2011 .