Cobalt oxide nanoparticles embedded in flexible carbon nanofibers: Attractive material for supercapacitor electrodes and CO adsorption

Introducing flexibility and high porosity into carbon nanofibers (CNFs) is one of the critical challenges for the next generation of multifunctional energy storage and CO adsorption materials. Herein, we developed an efficient strategy for the controllable fabrication of a flexible and mechanically robust CoO nanoparticles (NPs) doped CNFs (CNFs-Co) hybrid membrane via electrospinning and subsequent carbonization treatment. The quantitative pore size distribution and fractal analysis revealed that the CNFs-Co possessed a tunable porous structure with high surface area of 483 m g. Therefore, it exhibited exceptional performance in CO capture, i.e. a high CO adsorption capacity of 5.4 mmol g at 1 bar and room temperature. Electrochemical measurements performed on CNFs-Co for supercapacitor applications demonstrated very high capacitance of up to ∼911 F g at 5 mV s (76% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles) in 1 M HSO solution. The successful synthesis of this hybrid membrane may also provide new insights towards the development of materials for various multifunctional applications.