Synthesis of carbon fibers with branched nanographene sheets for electrochemical double layer capacitor application

We demonstrate a one step technique to synthesis the carbon fibers (CNFs) with branched nanographene sheets by the pulsed discharge (PD) plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Highly crystalline branched nanographene sheets were directly grown from the surface of the carbon fibers to obtain a three dimensional (3D) nanostructure. The growth process can be explained from the catalyst support growth of the CNFs, and subsequently nucleation and growth of the nanographene sheets from the crystalline surface of the CNF. The deposited nanostructured films with different pulse discharge were used as an electrode for electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLC). It is observed that the capacitance is dependent on the morphology of the electrode materials and an optimum capacitance is obtained with the branched nanographene on CNFs.