We herein report a high-resolution nanopatterning method using low voltage electromechanical spinning with a rotating collector to obtain aligned graphitized micro and nanowires for carbon nanomanufacturing. A small wire diameter and a small inter-wire spacing were obtained by controlling the electric field, the spinneret-to-collector distance, the pyrolysis parameters, the linear speed of the spinneret, the rotational speed of the collector. Using a simple scaling analysis, we show how the straightness and the diameter of the wires can be controlled by the electric field and the distance of the spinneret to the collector. A small inter-wire spacing, as predicted by a simple model, was achieved by simultaneously controlling the linear speed of the spinneret and the rotational speed of the collector. Rapid drying of the polymer nanowires enabled the facile fabrication of suspended wires over various structures. Patterned polyacrylonitrile wires were carbonized using standard stabilization and pyrolysis to obtain carbon nanowires. Suspended carbon nanowires with a diameter of <50 nm were obtained. We also established a method for making patterned, highly graphitized structures by using the aforementioned carbon wire structures as a template for chemical vapor deposition of graphite. This patterning technique offers high throughput for nano writing, which outperforms other existing nanopatterning techniques, making it a potential candidate for large-scale carbon nanomanufacturing.

Catalytic substrate, which is devoid of expensive noble metals and enzymes for hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), reduction reactions can be obtained via nitrogen doping of graphite. Here, we report a facile fabrication method for obtaining such nitrogen doped graphitized carbon using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) mats and its use in H₂O₂ sensing. A high degree of graphitization was obtained with a mechanical treatment of the PAN fibers embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNT) prior to the pyrolysis step. The electrochemical testing showed a limit of detection (LOD) 0.609 µM and sensitivity of 2.54 µA cm⁻² mM⁻¹. The promising sensing performance of the developed carbon electrodes can be attributed to the presence of high content of pyridinic and graphitic nitrogens in the pyrolytic carbons, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The reported results suggest that, despite their simple fabrication, the hydrogen peroxide sensors developed from pyrolytic carbon nanofibers are comparable with their sophisticated nitrogen-doped graphene counterparts.