Porous and Hollow Carbon Nanofibrous Electrode Materials from Electrospinning for Supercapacitor Energy Storage

Abstract

In recent years, carbon nanofibers from electrospinning (ECNFs) have been extensively studied as promising electrode material for supercapacitors. In order to further improve the electrochemical performance of ECNFs, porous or hollow ECNF structures have been investigated. However, the state-of-the-art ECNF research for supercapacitors reported only one type of carbon nanofibrous structure, i.e. porous, hollow (hollow nanofibers with a solid wall), or hollow porous (hollow nanofibers with a porous wall), at a time; the electrochemical data from these reports are not directly comparable due to different electrospinning conditions and various instruments for electrochemical measurements. In this chapter, a side-by-side comparison of the electrochemical performance of four types of ECNF supercapacitor electrode materials including solid, porous, hollow, and hollow porous, respectively, has been studied. The findings herein provide an in-depth understanding of the relationship between 1D carbon nanofibrous structures from electrospinning and their corresponding electrochemical performance as electrode materials for future high-performance supercapacitor applications.