Hierarchical Porous Carbon Nanofibers Derived from Metal-Organic Frameworks for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Abstract

This study presents a novel synthesis strategy for hierarchical porous carbon nanofibers (HPCNFs) derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) grown on electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. The resulting HPCNFs exhibit a specific surface area of 1,285 m²/g with a hierarchical micro-meso-macroporous structure. When evaluated as supercapacitor electrodes, the HPCNFs deliver a remarkable specific capacitance of 342 F/g at 1 A/g, with 95.3% capacitance retention after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. The exceptional electrochemical performance is attributed to the synergistic effects of high surface area, interconnected porous channels, and nitrogen doping from the ZIF-8 precursor.