Supercapacitive properties of porous carbon nanofibers via the electrospinning of metal alkoxide-graphene in polyacrylonitrile

The polar group Si-O-C introduction was made into the carbon nanofibers, and the resulting carbon nanofiber composite (CNFC) electrodes were evaluated as an electrochemical capacitor. Simple thermal treatment of the electrospun nanofibers from the blend solution of tetraethyl orthosilicate and graphene with polyacrylonitrile introduced suitable micropores to accommodate many ions without a pore creation step such as oxidative activation. The supercapacitor electrode prepared with 3 wt% graphene showed high specific capacitance of 144.80 Fg(-1), energy density of 18.49-10.83 Whkg(-1) in the respective range of 400-30,000 Wkg(-1) in 6 M KOH aqueous solution. The specific capacitance and energy density were 2 and 3 times higher, respectively, in comparison with pristine CNF. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.