Solution Blown Silicon Carbide Porous Nanofiber Membrane as Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

Silicon carbide materials have attracted much attention in supercapacitor as electrode materials. Solution blowing process is a novel method to fabricate nanofibers with high productivity. In this study, silicon carbide nanofiber membranes (SiC-NFMs) with porous architecture were prepared via solution blowing process and subsequent calcination, which exhibiting good electrochemical performance as electrode materials for supercapacitors. As a simple and efficient nanofiber fabricating method, solution blowing was introduced here to produce as-spun precursor nanofiber membranes which would be pyrolysed to Silicon carbide products. The porous architecture of SiC-NFMs, which was composed of mesopores in each single nanofiber and macropores between nanofibers, led to the excellent electrochemical performance. The results showed that these membranes were of high specific capacitance (similar to 189 F g (1)) and outstanding cycling stability (91.7% retention after 3000 cycles). This solution blowing method would find application to produce SiC-NFMs which can be used as electrode materials for supercapacitors with good performance. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.