Salt-activated phenolic resin/PAN-derived core-sheath nanostructured carbon nanofiber composites for capacitive energy storage

In this study, we have fabricated the phenolic resin (PR)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) blend-derived core-sheath nanostructured carbon nanofibers (CNFs) via one-pot solution electrospinning. The obtained core-sheath nanostructured carbon nanofibers were further treated by mixed salt activation process to develop the activated porous CNFs (CNF-A). Compared to pure PAN-based CNFs, the activated PR/PAN blend with PR 20% (CNF28-A)-derived core-sheath nanostructured CNFs showed enhanced specific capacitance of similar to 223 F g(-1) under a three-electrode configuration. Besides, the assembled symmetric CNF28-A//CNF28-A device possessed a specific capacitance of 76.7 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1) and exhibited good stability of 111% after 5,000 galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD) cycles, which verifies the outstanding long-term cycle stability of the device. Moreover, the fabricated supercapacitor device delivered an energy density of 8.63 Wh kg(-1) at a power density of 450 W kg(-1).

Automated summary

In this study, core-sheath nanostructured carbon nanofibers (CNFs) derived from a phenolic resin (PR)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) blend were fabricated via one-pot solution electrospinning and further treated by mixed salt activation process to develop activated porous CNFs (CNF-A). The activated PR/PAN blend with PR 20% (CNF28-A)-derived core-sheath nanostructured CNFs showed enhanced specific capacitance and long-term cycle stability in a supercapacitor device. The fabricated supercapacitor device exhibited a high energy density at a given power density.