Rational structural design is always necessary for developing extraordianry carbon aerogel materials with larger internal surface area, smaller pore size, higher mechanical strength and so on. In this work, oxidized polyacrylonitrile/poly (amic acid) (oP) carbon aerogels with unique structure are innovatively fabricated by incorporating electrospinning technique, freeze-shaping technique and carbonization process, which is consisted of one-dimensional carbon nanofibers and two-dimensional carbon sheets. Benefitting from the multi-dimensional structure and enhanced capillary effect, thus obtained oP carbon aerogels can be applied as versatile adsorbents for various pollutants in our daily life as well as from industries, showing maximal sorptive capacity of 62 times of its original weight and excellent recyclability. Interestingly, oP carbon aerogels can also act as support for asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) electrode materials, such as activated oP(A-oP) carbon aerogels (negative electrode) and oP/MnO2 hybrid carbon aerogel (positive electrode). The assembled oP/MnO2//A-oP ASC device exhibits a high energy density of 30.3 Wh kg-1 at power density of 501.3 W kg-1, which is much higher than most reported MnO2 based asymmetric supercapacitors. Thus high-performance is attributed to the uniformly anchored MnO2 nanosheets with two-dimensional lamellar structure and the interconnected three-dimensional pathways, which can not only enhance the surface adsorption ability and contact area of MnO2 nanosheets with electrolyte but also accelerate the electron transfer rate inner electrode materials. Hence, our work fabricates a novel carbon aerogel material with multi-functions (such as adsorbents, supercapacitor electrodes, and even nanoparticle supports), which owns immense potential values for both scientific researches and practical applications.

Electrospun carbon nanofiber aerogel meets polyimide-derived carbon sheets: a rational structural design for environmental protection and energy storage

252nd National Meeting (2016)

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