Preparation and characterization of PAN-based carbon nanofibers non-woven

Spinning solution was prepared using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as solute and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent with concentration of 10%. PAN nanofibers non-woven of which the diameter range is from 200 nm to 280 nm was prepared under conditions of 18 kV spinning voltage, 3.0 mL/h injection speed and 15 cm receiving distance. And PAN nanofibers non-woven was cured at 280°C in air and pyrolyzed at 850°C in nitrogen, the light and flexible carbon nanofibers non-woven was obtained with the diameter range from 100 nm to 200 nm. The morphologies, compositions and structures of PAN and C nanofibers were characterized by SEM, FT-IR, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and XRD. The TGA results show that the yield of PAN based carbon nanofibers is 51%.