Fabrication of Carbon Nanofibers Decorated with Various Kinds of Metal Oxides for Battery Applications

• Main Authors: Jung-Pil Lee, Sinho Choi, Sungjin Cho, Woo-Jin Song, Soojin Park
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: carbon nanofibers; electrospinning; metal oxides; alkoxides; composites; Li-ion batteries
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/5/1353

Carbon nanofibers decorated with various metal oxide nanoparticles were fabricated by combining an electrospinning technique of bicomponent polymer mixture and a sol-gel reaction and subsequent carbonization process. Electrospun polymer nanofibers consisting of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) with controllable diameters were fabricated with PAN/PVP core/shell types via phase-separation due to the immiscibility between two polymers. The electrospun nanofibers served as supporting materials with binding sites of PVP to incorporate titanium oxide precursor. Subsequently, the carbonization of the fibers led to the formation of carbon nanofibers@TiO₂ for energy application, in which rutile TiO₂ nanoparticles were decorated on the surface of carbon nanofiber. Especially, this TiO₂ decorated carbon nanofiber electrode exhibited excellent electrochemical property in lithium-ion batteries (≈600 mA h g⁻¹ at C/5 rate for 100 cycles). Furthermore, the carbon nanofibers were also successfully modified with other metal oxides, including NiO, SnO₂, and ZrO₂ nanoparticles, in a similar manner.