A Facile Preparation of Flexible Alumina/Carbon Composite Nanofibers Film

Flexible alumina (Al 2 O 3 )/carbon (C) composite nanofibers film has been fabricated via electrospinning, followed by pre-oxidation and carbonization. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and aluminum hydroxyacetate (Al(OH)C 4 H 6 O 4 ) acted as carbon precursor and Al 2 O 3 precursor, respectively. The obtained Al 2 O 3 /C nanofibers films were systematically characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and flexural tests. The results indicated that Al 2 O 3 /C composite nanofibers with rough surface consisted of graphitic phase and γ-Al 2 O 3 phase. The Al 2 O 3 covering on the surface of nanofibers improved the flexibility of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) film. Moreover, with the amount of Al 2 O 3 increasing, both flexural rigidity and flexural modulus of Al 2 O 3 /C nanofibers film decreased drastically. In the other words, the flexibility of CNFs film improved greatly. The Al 2 O 3 /C nanofibers film with the mass ratio of Al(OH)C 4 H 6 O 4 : PAN being 4:1 exhibited flexural modulus that was about 11 times lower than that of CNFs film without Al 2 O 3 , suggesting that the highly flexible Al 2 O 3 /C nanofibers film was obtained.