Single-walled carbon nanotube embedded porous carbon nanofiber with enhanced electrochemical capacitive performance

Active carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with porous structure show highly electrochemical double-layer capacitance for supercapacitors because of their large specific area. However, their poor crystallization induced the low conductivity, which could largely limit the electrochemical performance of the porous CNFs. In this research, porous CNFs with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were prepared by electrospinning and high temperature carbonization. The introduction of SWCNTs into porous CNFs could largely enhance the conductivity of the porous CNF nanotextiles, thus the electrochemical performance of the composite nanotextile was largely enhanced. The specific capacitance of the composite could achieve 417 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g, and keep 193 F/g at the high current density of 10 A/g. Furthermore its specific capacitance could keep 96% after 2000 cycles of charge/discharge at the current density of 10 A/g. This nanotextile could be a promising candidate for the binder-free and filler-free electrodes of high-performance supercapacitors. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.