AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS1-TuM

Paper NS1-TuM6
Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers for Energy Storage Applications

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 9:40 am, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Structures and Characterization II
Presenter: K.-Y. Tse, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Authors: K.-Y. Tse, University of Wisconsin-Madison
V. Dementiev, University of Wisconsin-Madison
L.Z. Zhang, University of Wisconsin-Madison
S.E. Baker, University of Wisconsin-Madison
P. Warf, University of Wisconsin-Madison
R. West, University of Wisconsin-Madison
R.J. Hamers, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Correspondent: Click to Email
Vertically-aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) are interesting materials for applications such as energy storage because the stacking of graphene sheets within the individual nanofibers exposes a comparatively large number of edge planes, which are more chemically and electrochemically reactive than the basal planes. Thus, VACNFs have very different chemical and electrochemical properties than carbon nanotubes and other forms of nanostructured carbon. We have investigated the electrical properties of VACNF forests in a variety of electrolytes for applications as electrochemical double layer capacitors (also known as supercapacitors) and lithium ion batteries. By combining VACNFs with organosilicon electrolytes, it is possible to fabricate supercapacitors that exhibit high capacitance, good stability, and excellent frequency response. The vertical orientation of the nanofibers provides excellent ionic accessibility and low resistance, which translate to good high-frequency response when used in energy storage devices. We will also discuss effects of chemical modification with molecular monolayer, nanofiber aggregation, and further experiments to improve the performance of VACNFs electrodes.