Functional properties of electrospun NiO/RuO2 composite carbon nanofibers

One-dimensional (1D) nickel oxide/ruthenium oxide (NiO/RuO2)-carbon composite nanofibers (NiRu-C-NFs) were fabricated via electrospinning of a homogenous mixture of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and Ni/Ru salt precursors at different ratios followed by heat treatments. The 1D nanostructures of the composite material were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurements. Li-cycling properties were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic properties. The asymmetric hybrid supercapacitor studies were carried out with activated carbon as a cathode and NiRu-C-NFs composites as anodes in the cycling range, 0.005-3.0 V using 1 M LiPF6 (EC;DMC) electrolyte. NiRu-C-NFs fabricated from 5 wt% nickel (II) and 15 wt% ruthenium (III) precursors showed a capacitance up to similar to 60 F g(-1) after 30 cycles. Anodic Li-cycling studies of NiRu-C-NF-0 and NiRu-C-NF-2 composite samples showed a reversible capacity of 230 and 350 m Ahg(-1) at current rate of 72 mA g(-1) at the end of 40th cycle in the voltage range of 0.005-3.0 V. Electrochemical impedance studies (EIS) on NiRu-C-NFs showed lower impedance value for 15 wt% Ru than the bare sample. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.