Cut-price fabrication of free-standing porous carbon nanofibers film electrode for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Freestanding thin film electrodes are competitive candidate materials for high-performance energy stockpile equipment due to their self-supporting structure and because they lack any polymer binder or conductive additive. In our work, a porous carbon nanofiber film (PCNF) electrode has been synthesized via a convenient and low-cost electrospinning approach and the following carbonization and air etching process. The obtained PCNF electrode sample shows a high reversible capacity (1138 mAh g -1 at 0.1 C), remarkable rate capacity (101.2 mAh g -1 at 15 C), and superior cycling stability with a lower capacity decay rate of ~0.013% each cycle upon 1000 cycles (278 mAh g -1 at 5 C). The prominent electrochemical performance of PCNF can be put down to the stable self-supporting conductive structure and the porous feature in each carbon nanofiber, which will significantly promote the transfer tempo of Li-ion and electron and relieve the large volume change during inserting lithium ion. More interestingly, this work exhibits a low-cost and primitive strategy to fabricate thin film anode for lithium-ion batteries.