Ultrathin polymer film is deposited on the surfaces of vapor-grown carbon nanofibers by a plasma polymerization using acrylic acid as a monomer. Small angle light scattering is used to investigate the dispersion behavior of the carbon nanofibers suspended in water and provides information on the mechanism by which plasma treatment assists dispersion. Both plasma-treated and untreated nanofibers...

The novel method, handspinning (HS), was invented by mimicking commonly observed methods in our daily lives. The use of HS allows us to fabricate carbon nanotube-reinforced nanofibers (CNT-reinforced nanofibers) by addressing three significant challenges: (i) the difficulty of forming nanofibers at high concentrations of CNTs, (ii) aggregation of the CNTs, and (iii) control of the orientation o...

Entangled networks of carbon nanofibers are characterized both mechanically and electrically. Results for both tensile and compressive loadings of the entangled networks are presented for various densities. Mechanically, the nanofiber ensembles follow the micromechanical model originally proposed by van Wyk nearly 70 years ago. Interpretations are given on the mechanisms occurring during loadin...

Mechanically excellent native cellulose nanofibers that are cleaved from plant cell walls have been modified by functionalized few-walled carbon nanotubes for hybrid nanofiber/nanotube aerogels. They show elastic mechanical behavior in combination with reversible electrical response under compression allowing responsive conductivity and pressure sensing. The concept combines wide availability o...

We demonstrate a facile construction of iron nitride-doped carbon nanofiber by effectively utilizing the existing slit pores and rough edges along the inner wall of the substrate as originated by virtue of its cup-stack structure for effectively increasing the number of active sites and consequently the oxygen reduction activity.

The exploration of earth-abundant and high-efficiency electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great significant for sustainable energy conversion and storage applications. Although spinel-type binary transition metal oxides (AB2O4, A, B = metal) represent a class of promising candidates for water oxidation catalysis, their intrinsically inferior electrical conductivity ex...

Stable dispersions of nanofibers are virtually unknown for synthetic polymers. They can complement analogous dispersions of inorganic components, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc. as a fundamental component of a toolset for design of nanostructures and metamaterials via numerous solvent-based processing methods. As such, strong flexible polymeric nanofibers are very desirable f...

Stable dispersions of nanofibers are virtually unknown for synthetic polymers. They can complement analogous dispersions of inorganic components, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc as a fundamental component of a toolset for design of nanostructures and metamaterials via numerous solvent-based processing methods. As such, strong flexible polymeric nanofibers are very desirable fo...

It is still very challenging to achieve effective combination of carbon nanofibers and graphene sheets. In this study, a novel and facile method is developed to prepare flexible graphene/carbon nanofiber (GCNF) membranes with every carbon nanofiber wrapped by conductive graphene sheets, resulting in a remarkable improvement of their electrical conductivity. This method only entails a moderate p...

Metallic tin has been considered as one of the most promising anode materials both for lithium (LIBs) and sodium ion battery (NIBs) because of a high theoretical capacity and an appropriate low discharge potential. However, Sn anodes suffer from a rapid capacity fading during cycling due to pulverization induced by severe volume changes. Here we innovatively synthesized pipe-wire TiO2-Sn@carbon...