Polymer Blend Blow Spinning of Flexible Porous Carbon Nanofibers Capable for Multiapplication

Highly efficient production of porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs) is indispensable for applications in adsorption, thermal insulation, catalysis, batteries, etc. Herein, rapid fabrication of PCNFs with flexible and efficient adsorption properties was achieved through polymer blend blow spinning at a rate of 10–30 mL·h–1. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was used as the organic precursor to prepare PCNFs, with varying mass fractions of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microspheres employed as pore-forming agents. Following high-temperature carbonization, the diameter of PCNFs was adjusted within a range of 0.2–1.2 μm, resulting in a high specific surface area of 34.63 m2 g–1 and a pore distribution of 3–20 nm. PCNFs demonstrated exceptional mechanical resilience, withstanding cyclic compression strains of up to 60% and achieving a peak compression stress of 12.2 kPa. Additionally, PCNFs exhibited a significant adsorption capacity for oils and benzene, coupled with superior thermal insulation performance and an ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.022 W·(m·K)−1. PCNFs can also be used as sensors and demonstrated unmatched sensitivity to minute pressure variations ranging from 0 to 1 N. The polymer blend blow spinning technique showcased operational simplicity and remarkable versatility across various materials. This excellent functional expandability demonstrated that the strategy held significant potential for the large-scale production of multifunctional PCNFs.