Preparation and Electrochemical Testing of Flexible Carbon Nanofiber Electrodes from Electrospinning

The purpose of this research project was to determine the processing conditions necessary for preparing flexible carbon nanofiber electrodes by electrospinning and to explore various applications for those electrodes. It was found that by varying only the relative humidity while electrospinning a poly(acrylonitrile) precursor, fragile or flexible freestanding carbon nanofiber electrodes were prepared. The relative humidity during electrospinning controlled the fiber diameter, the bulk porosity of the material, and flexibility of the final carbon electrode. Higher porosity mats electrospun in a high relative humidity environment prevented fiber sintering, which if not minimized, resulted in non-flexible carbon electrodes. Both flexible and fragile electrodes were freestanding, binderless, and collectorless. Additionally, they required no further processing before use and were 100 wt.% active material. When cycled galvanostatically as a lithium ion battery anode, the flexible electrode exhibited a specific capacity of 379 mAH g-1 at the 100th cycle and capacity retention was 97.4% relative to the fifth cycle. When applied as an active material support electrode for lithium ion battery cathodes, the carbon support was successfully utilized with both micron and nano structured active material and cycled for 100 cycles with limited capacity loss. The same electrodes were also found to be a viable replacement for Pt electrode based actuators/artificial muscles. However, this application requires much further research to understand better the required processing and effects of the physical properties of the electrode on actuator performance. In addition to this, the flexible electrodes have a wide variety of other potential applications including, electrochemical storage and conversion devices, chemical sensing, and filtration. The focus of this work was electrochemical storage and conversion devices in the form of lithium ion battery anodes and cathodes as well as ionic polymer composite actuators.

Name thesis:degree_name

PHD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemistry

Department dc:contributor.department

Chemistry

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Beach, Jeremy

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Moore, Robert Bowen

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ellis, Michael W.
• Esker, Alan R.
• Long, Timothy E.

• Electrospinning
• Nano
• Carbon
• Electrode
• Batteries

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:13126

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/89627