Abstract
Two polymer solutions of polyacrylonitrile, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, and Ni(CH3COOH)2 in dimethylformamide were electrospun into ternary composite nanofibers, followed by stabilization and carbonization processes to obtain porous carbon/nickel composite nanofibers with diameters of 100–200 nm. The study revealed that carbon/nickel composite nanofibers were successfully prepared, which allowed nickel particles with diameters of 20–70 nm to be uniformly distributed in the carbon nanofibers. It was also observed that the fibrous structures with particles embedded formed and the fibers broke into shorter fibers after sintering. X-ray diffraction indicated that embedded particles crystallized with the face centered cubic structure. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis revealed that carbon/nickel composite nanofibers with meso-pores possessed larger specific surface area than that of carbon nanofibers. The specific capacitance of the composite nanofiber electrode was as high as 103.8 F/g and showed stable cyclicity (73.8%).