Letters to the Editor

Fabrication and electrical characterization of electrospun polyacrylonitrile‐derived carbon nanofibers

“…Carbon nanofibers, like other one‐dimensional nanostructures such as nanowires, nanotubes, and molecular wires, have been receiving increasing attention because of their high length‐to‐diameter ratio. This is due to their potential applications in nanocomposites,1 templates for nanotubes,2 filters,3 rechargeable batteries,4 supercapacitors,5 bottom–up assembly in nanoelectronics and photonics,6 and so forth. Carbon nanofibers can be produced by a traditional vapor growth method7 or by a plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition method, which were developed at the beginning of this century 8.…”

“…The nanosize diameter promises a high specific surface area and durable physical properties in compression 9. Reneker et al3 produced carbon nanofibers with diameters in the range of 100 nm to a few micrometers from electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and mesophase pitch precursor fibers. Wang and coworkers10, 11 produced carbon nanofibers by carbonizing electrospun PAN nanofibers and studied their structure and conductivity.…”