Titanium carbide (TiC) nano-fibrous felts

A mechanically resilient carbide-derived-carbon (CDC) nano-fibrous felt prepared by the process comprising:

• electrospinning a spin dope for making precursor nanofibers with diameters less than 0.5 pm, wherein the spin dope comprises a Ti precursor and a C precursor, and wherein the Ti precursor comprises a titanium alkoxide and the C precursor comprises furfuryl alcohol;
• overlaying the precursor nanofibers to produce a precursor nano-fibrous felt;
• and
• heating the precursor nano-fibrous felt under an argon gas flow first at a low temperature in the range between 250° C. and 425° C., and then at a high temperature in the range from 1,000° C. to 1,500° C. and making an electrospun continuous Titanium Carbide (TiC) nano-fibrous felt with TiC crystallites embedded in a carbon matrix by carbothermal reduction;
• and
• chlorinating the electrospun continuous TiC nano-fibrous felt at a temperature of between 200° C. to 1000° C. to remove titanium for producing a carbide-derived-carbon (CDC) nano-fibrous felt.