Electrochemical behavior of uniformly decorated electrospun nickel on carbon nanofibers

Highly uniform nickel (Ni) doped carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were manufactured by a controlled electrospinning process using polyacrylonitrile as-carbon source and nickel acetate as Ni-source. The structural and morphological properties of Ni-CNFs evidenced the defined and smooth fibers with the average diameter of 200−300 nm. The Ni-doping on CNFs considerably improved the surface defects and structural properties of CNFs. For electrochemical supercapacitor application, the prepared Ni-CNFs was applied as electro-active electrode and capacitive properties were studied by measuring the cyclicvoltammetry (CV) in aqueous 1 M Na₂SO₄ electrolyte. A reasonable specific capacitance of 347.5 Fg⁻¹ was achieved by Ni-CNFs electrode which was 2 folds larger than that of pure CNFs electrode, suggesting the role of Ni doping into CNFs on the electrochemical performance. Ni-CNFs electrode showed the excellent capacity retention by 91 % over all cycle numbers in Na₂SO₄ electrolyte. Thus, this work supplies a new route for preparation of high-quality metal doped CNFs via electrospinning method.