Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers and Their Applications in Several Areas

Abstract

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have a broad spectrum of applications, including sensor manufacturing, electrochemical catalysis, and energy storage. Among different manufacturing methods, electrospinning, due to its simplicity and efficiency, has emerged as one of the most powerful commercial large-scale production techniques. Numerous researchers have been attracted to improving the performance of CNFs and exploring new potential applications. This paper first discusses the working theory of manufacturing electrospun CNFs. Next, the current efforts in upgrading the properties of CNFs, such as pore architecture, anisotropy, electrochemistry, and hydrophilicity, are discussed. The corresponding applications due to the superior performances of CNFs are subsequently elaborated. Finally, the future development of CNFs is discussed.

Investigating Permselectivity in PVDF Mixed Matrix Membranes Using Experimental Optimization, Machine Learning Segmentation, and Statistical Forecasting

“…The water vapor flux for 1 wt % Cu + CNF/PVDF mixed membranes was observed to be significantly superior compared to 1 wt % CNF/PVDF and PVDF membranes, despite a marginal decrease over time. All the membranes exhibited a salt rejection rate of approximately 99.98%, although a reduction in this rate was noted for PVDF membranes, and a minor decline was observed for 1 wt % CNF membranes over a period of 36 h. Given the largely uncharted stability of nanomaterial-incorporated mixed membranes over prolonged durations, primarily due to the time-consuming and labor-intensive nature of MD experiments, − a time-series forecasting model was trained based on the experimental data gathered from 36 h runs. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Explanatory Variable (ARIMAX) model was adopted to predict the salt rejection and water vapor flux for 108 h based on 36 h experimental data in Figure b.…”

“…The influence of high surface energy from multidimensional nanomaterials (such as nanofibers and nanoparticles) further contributes to this deviation from circularity. The local arrangement of polymer chains is altered due to the presence of these nanomaterials. − Figure a,b depict SEM images of electrospun CNFs and Cu nanoparticle-decorated CNFs, respectively. The electrospinning process yielded uniform-diameter CNFs with diameters ranging from 1.2 to 1.6 nm.…”

Meso-Microporous Carbon Nanofibrous Aerogel Electrode Material with Fluorine-Treated Wood Biochar for High-Performance Supercapacitor

“…Electrospinning is a straightforward and universal technique to produce submicron and nanometer scale fibers from various materials [5]. Electrospun carbon nanofibers (ECNF) have demonstrated their promises as high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitor development due to their features such as high porosity, large specific surface area, adequate structural integrity, and good electrochemical performance over numerous charge/discharge cycles [6][7][8][9].…”

Controlled Alignment of Carbon Black Nanoparticles in Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers for Flexible Films

“…For electrodes, CNF mats are believed to be among the highly promising materials capable of producing free-standing flexible electrodes due to their interconnected structure integrity, chemical stability, and electronic conductivity [4]. Benefiting from these inherent characteristic features of CNF, many material scientists have reported the development of numerous composite CNF-mats-based electrodes for making flexible Li-ion, Na-ion, and Li-S batteries, as well as supercapacitors and other energy storage devices [5,6]. However, the flexibility of CNF mats is still insufficient from a commercial production perspective, which has stimulated scientists to develop novel protocols for fabricating reliable soft CNF [7,8].…”