In order to solve the problem of low electrical conductivity of carbon nanofiber membranes, a novel triple crosslinking strategy, including pre-rolling, solvent and chemical imidization crosslinking, was proposed to prepare carbon nanofiber membranes with a chemical crosslinking structure (CNMs-CC) derived from electrospinning polyimide nanofiber membranes. The physical-chemical characteristics of CNMs-CC as freestanding anodes for lithium-ion batteries were investigated in detail, along with carbon nanofiber membranes without a crosslinking structure (CNMs) and carbon nanofiber membranes with a physical crosslinking structure (CNMs-PC) as references. Further investigation demonstrates that CNMs-CC exhibits excellent rate performance and long cycle stability, compared with CNMs and CNMs-PC. At 50 mA g-1, CNMs-CC delivers a reversible specific capacity of 495 mAh g-1. In particular, the specific capacity of CNMs-CC is still as high as 290.87 mAh g-1 and maintains 201.38 mAh g-1 after 1000 cycles at a high current density of 1 A g-1. The excellent electrochemical performance of the CNMs-CC is attributed to the unique crosslinking structure derived from the novel triple crosslinking strategy, which imparts fast electron transfer and ion diffusion kinetics, as well as a stable structure that withstands repeated impacts of ions during charging and discharging process. Therefore, CNMs-CC shows great potential to be the freestanding electrodes applied in the field of flexible lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors owing to the optimized structure strategy and improved properties.
Keywords: carbon nanofiber membranes; crosslinking; electrospinning; flexible electrodes; lithium-ion batteries.