The essential conditions for developing high electrical conductivity capability in carbon nanofibers

摘要

Carbon nanofiber webs have high electrical and thermal conductivity, porosity, surface area and good mechanical properties promising great potential for different applications. In this paper, three types of chemically different polyacrylonitrile (PAN) copolymers were electrospun in various concentrations and nanofibers with average diameter between 220 and 530 nm were produced. After stabilization and carbonization of PAN nanofibers, carbon nanofibers with diameter in the range of 110 to 300 nm were produced. The effects of chemical composition and processing parameters on the formation of the sponge-bond interconnected morphology and electrical conductivity of the carbon nanofibers were studied. The results revealed that the progress of stabilization reactions higher than 98% is inappropriate, whereas the stabilization progress in the range of 87% was considered adequate for the development of a proper structure for obtaining high electrical conductivity during carbonization process. Formation of nanofiber mats in shape of a network interconnected sponge-like structure was believed to be necessary for obtaining much higher electrical conductivity (16.70 S/cm compared to 1.10 and 2.33 S/cm in the case of nanofiber mats without interconnections and sponge-like structure).