Preparation of Carbonized Fibers for Producing Supercapacitor Electrode

Abstract

The aim of this study was to produce carbonized fibers from Textile-grade polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers, as these fibers are relatively cheap and commercially available in the market. Random initial experiments revealed that it is possible to stabilize the raw PAN fibers thermally by dipping them in an aqueous solution of Borax before being heated in thermal stabilization furnace. The stabilized fibers were characterized in order to choose the optimum stabilization process. Then, the stabilized fibers were carbonized, the carbonized fibers produced were also, characterized in order to identify them. The obtained carbonized fibers had 88.5 % carbon content and a porous surface with 283 m2/g specific surface area. As an application of the thermally stabilized fibers produced in this work, these fibers in combination with phenolic resin were employed in making activated carbon fibers monolith. That monolith was characterized for being used as a supercapacitor electrode. Results of analyses showed that the optimum monolith electrode has a specific capacity of 29 Farad/g, specific surface area of 486 m2/g including a mixture of (micropores and mesopores) and the stability of the electrical resistivity over the temperature range [-130 to 80 oC].