Lignin-based carbon nanofibe rs: Morphologies, properties, and features as substrates for pseudocapacitor electrodes

In this work, lignin-based carbon nanofibers (LCNFs) were for the first time served as substrate for in-situ electrodeposition of polyaniline (PANI) and tested as pseudocapacitor. Two LCNFs with different lignin ratios were designed to distinguish their morphology and structural properties. Next, PANI deposition mechanisms on both LCNFs were investigated and the electrochemical performance of the resulting LCNF/PANIs were evaluated. It was found although LCNF2 was composed of less uniform nanofibers due to more presence of lignin in precursor dope, it had higher tensile strength/modulus than LCNF1 (strength: 34.3MPa to 24.2 MPa; Modulus: 2.40 GPa to 1.45GPa) and was more cost-effective. Particularly, the beaded fibers on LCNF2 contributes to the deposition of PANI with higher specific mass capacitance (612.8 F g−1 to 547.0 F g−1). Upon assembling into solid-state supercapacitors, the Cm of LCNF2/PANI device was determined to be 229 F g−1 and the maximum energy density was 11.13Wh kg−1 at a power density of 0.08 kW kg−1. This work showed LCNF produced from renewable and low-cost lignin could be directly used as substrate for PANI deposition. Moreover, the composition in spinning dope played an important role in determining the performances of resulting pseudocapacitors.