The composite used in this paper was prepared by hot-pressing ball-milled Mg alloy powders, in which NiTi shape memory alloy fibers in a row were sandwiched. The microstructure and property were examined. It is shown that the composite consisted of a homogenous matrix with uniformly distributed NiTi shape memory alloy fibers, recrystallization took place in the Mg alloy matrix which was subjected to plastic deformation an adequate bonding formed between the matrix and fibers; the density and tensile strength of the composite increased after the hot-forging; the hot-forging process is capable of improving properties of the composite.

During a 3-year period (2001-2004) 18 animals were surgically treated because of abdominal wall defects (hernia). Out of 18 animals 8 were bovines, 5 caprines and 5 canines. In each case the defect was bridged with carbon fibres. Carbon fibres were placed either in simple interrupted pattern or as mattress overlapping pattern. All the cases were successfully treated and no complication was observed up to six months postoperatively.

Carbon-ceramic composites were fabricated by using fly ash and PANOX fibers as reinforcement. Fly ash, because of its small size particles e.g. submicron to micron level can be effectively dispersed along with fibrous reinforcements. Phenolic resin was used as carbon precursor. Both dry as well as wet methods were used for forming composites. The resulting composites were characterized for their microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. The microstructure and mechanical properties of composites are found to be dependent on type of the fly ash, fibrous reinforcements as well as processing parameters. The addition of fly ash improves hardness and the fibers, which get co-carbonized on heat treatment, increase the flexural strength of the carbon-ceramic composites. Composites with dual reinforcement exhibit about 30-40% higher strength as compared to the composites made with single reinforcement, either with fly ash as filler or with chopped fibers.

Plasma polymerization of allylamine subsequently after plasma pre-treatment was conducted on the activated carbon fibers (ACFs) for the immobilization of amine groups in the surface of ACFs. The change of structural properties of ACFs with respect to different polymerization conditions was investigated through BET method. The change of surface morphologies of ACFs with respect to different plasma polymerization power was also studied through AFM. It was found that the structural properties such as specific surface area and micropore volume could be optimized under certain plasma deposition conditions. It was reckoned that treatment and deposition showed adverse effect on plasma polymerization, in which the former developed the micro-structures of the ACFs and the latter tended to block the micro pores. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that the poly(allylamine) was successfully immobilized on the surface of ACFs and the amount of the deposited polymer layer was related to the plasma polymerization power. SEM results showed that the plasma deposited polymer layer were small and homogenously distributed. The size and the distribution of particles deposited were closely related to the plasma polymerization power, too.

In this work, the effects of atmospheric oxygen plasma treatment of carbon fibers on mechanical interfacial properties of carbon fibers-reinforced epoxy matrix composites was studied. The surface properties of the carbon fibers were determined by acid/base values, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. Also, the crack resistance properties of the composites were investigated in critical stress intensity factor (KIC), and critical strain energy release rate mode II (GIIC) measurements. As experimental results, FT-IR of the carbon fibers showed that the carboxyl/ester groups (C=O) at 1632 cm-1 and hydroxyl group (O-H) at 3450 cm-1 were observed for the plasma treated carbon fibers, and the treated carbon fibers had the higher O-H peak intensity than that of the untreated ones. The XPS results also indicated that the O1S/C1S ratio of the carbon fiber surfaces treated by the oxygen plasma led to development of oxygen-containing functional groups. The mechanical interfacial properties of the composites, including KIC (critical stress intensity factor) and GIIC (critical strain energy release rate mode II), were also improved for the oxygen plasma-treated carbon fibersreinforced composites. These results could be explained that the oxygen plasma treatment played an important role to increase interfacial adhesions between carbon fibers and epoxy matrix resins in our composite system.

The electrosorption of U(VI) from waste water was carried out by using an activated carbon fiber (ACF) felt electrode in a continuous electrosorption cell. In order to enhance the electrosorption capacity at a lower potential, the ACF was electrochemically modified in an acidic and a basic solution. Pore structure and functional groups of the electrochemically modified ACF were examined, and the effects of the modification conditions were studied for the adsorption of U(VI). Specific surface area of all the ACFs was decreased by this modification. The amount of the acidic functional groups decreased with a basic modification, while the amount increased a lot with an acidic modification. The electrosorption capacity of U(VI) decreased on the acid modified electrode due to the shielding effect of the acidic functional groups. The base modified electrode enhanced the capacity due to a reduction of the acidic functional groups. The electrosorption amount of U(VI) on the base modified electrode at .0.3 V corresponds to that of the as-received ACF electrode at .0.9 V. Such a good adsorption capacity was due to a reduction of the shielding effect and an increase of the hydroxyl ions in the electric double layer on the ACF surface by the application of negative potential.

Isotropic pitch based carbon fibers were exposed to isothermal oxidation in carbon dioxide gas to study the activation kinetics under the temperature of 800~1100℃. The kinetic equation f=1--(-atb) was introduced and the constant b was obtained in the range of 0.92~1.25. It was shown that the activated carbon fiber shows the highly specific surface area (SSA) when the constant b comes close to 1. The activation kinetics were evaluated by the reaction-controlling regime (RCR) according to changes of the apparent activation energy with changes of the conversion. It was observed that the activation energies increase from 47.6 to 51.2 kcal/mole with the conversion increasing from 0.2 to 0.8. It was found that the pores of the activated carbon fiber under the chemical reaction were developed well through the fiber.

OXI-PAN fibers, Kynol fibers and rayon fibers were used as precursorsfor the preparation of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) by chemical activation with KOH at 800℃. The effects of different precursorfibers and fiber/KOH ratios on the final ACFs are discussed. The precursor fibers used are appropriate for the ACFs in a single stage pyrolysis process. The OXI-PAN fibers which were activated with KOH of 2.0M showed a specific surface area of 2328m2/g however, loosed the fiber shape because of low yields. The Kynol fibers and Rayon fibers showed the high yields but the lower specific surface area of 900m2/g and 774m2/g, respectively, at KOH of 1.5M. The OXI-PAN fibers which were activated with KOH of 1.5M have a specific surface area of 1028m2/g and higher micro-pore volumes and lower yields rather than Kynol-1.5 and Rayon-1.5 samples. This phenomenon is because of higher chemical resistance of the Kynol and Rayon fibers rather than OXI-PAN fibers. However, the Kynol fibers were the best precursors on KOH activation at 800℃ considered carbon yields, surface areas and micropore volumes.

In this work, a nickel metal (Ni) electroplating on the activated carbon fiber (Ni/ACFs) surfaces was carried out to remove the toxic hydrogen chloride (HCl) gas. The surface properties of the treated ACFs were determined by using nitrogen adsorption isotherms at 77 K, SEM, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. HCl removal efficiency was confirmed by a gas-detecting tube technique. As a result, the nickel metal contents on the ACF surfaces were increased with increasing the plating time. And, it was found that the specific surface area or the micropore volume of the ACFs studied was slightly decreased as increasing the plating time. Whereas, it was revealed that the HCl removal efficiency containing nickel metal showed higher efficiency values than that of untreated ACFs. These results indicated that the presence of nickel metal on the ACF surfaces played an important role in improving the HCl removal over the Ni/ACFs, due to the catalytic reactions between nickel and chlorine.

Thermolysis of Cu(NO3)2·3H2O impregnated activated carbon fiber (ACF) was studied by means of XRD analysis to obtain Cu-impregnated ACF. Cu(NO3)2·3H2O was converted into Cu2O around 230℃. The Cu2O was reduced to Cu at 400℃, resulting in ACF-C(Cu). Some Cu particles have a tendency to aggregate through the heat treatment, resulting in the ununiform distribution in ACF. Catalytic decomposition of NO gas has been performed by Cu-impregnated ACF in a column reactor at 400℃. Initial NO concentration was 1300 ppm diluted in helium gas. NO gas was effectively decomposed by 5~10 wt% Cu-impregnated ACF at 400℃. The concentration of NO was maintained less than 200 ppm for 6 hours in this system. The ACF-C(Cu) deoxidized NO to N2 and was reduced to ACF-C(Cu2O) in the initial stage. The ACF-C(Cu2O) also deoxidized NO to N2 and reduced to ACF-C(CuO). This ACF-C(CuO) was converted again into ACF-C(Cu) by heating. There was no consumption of ACF in mass during thermolysis and catalytic decomposition of NO to N2 by copper. The catalytic decomposition was accelerated with increase of the reaction temperature.

The atmospheric pressure plasma treatments (Ar/O2 and Ar/N2) of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were carried out to introduce hydrophilic functional groups on carbon surfaces in order to enhance the hydrogen chloride gas (HCl) adsorption. Surface properties of the ACFs were determined by XPS and SEM. N2/77 K adsorption isotherms were investigated by BET and D-R (Dubinin-Radushkevich) plot methods. The HCl removal efficiency was confirmed by HCl detecting tubes (range:1~40 or 40~1000 ppm). As experimental results, it was found that all plasma-treated ACFs showed the decrease in the pore volume, but the HCl removal efficiency showed higher level than that of the untreated ACFs. This result indicated that the plasma treatments led to the conformation of hydrophilic functional groups on the carbon surfaces, resulting in the increase of the interaction between the ACFs and HCl gas.

Isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber was isothermally activated in CO2 atmosphere. Structural parameters of the isotropic carbon fibers and activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The d002 and La of the carbon fibers were measured to be 4.04 a and 23.6 a and those of ACFs were 4.29 a and 22.7 a, respectively, representing less ordered through activation process. The pores in the ACFs were characterized by BET, and they showed super-high specific surface area of maximum value 3,495 m2/g from average pore size of 8.3 a at 59% burn-off. It was recognized that 8-9 a was optimum range of pore size for efficient creation of high specific surface area. The average size of the pores formed at higher temperature (1100℃) was larger than that of the pores formed at lower temperature (900℃).

Structural changes of high modulus carbon fiber by oxidation in carbon dioxide gas using SEM, TEM, and XRD have been observed. It was shown that the originally high modulus carbon fiber is composed of highly ordered graphitic crystalline area and non-crystalline area. It was observed that the La increases during the whole oxidation process. It was shown that the oxidation of high modulus carbon fiber initiates at the non-crystalline area and at the ends of fiber. The large pores developed in fiber by direction of fiber length at high temperature (1,100℃), and the small pores developed on the fiber surface at low temperature (900℃). In conclusion, it is found that the oxidation of the carbon fiber was progressed through the imperfection.

In this study, the oxyfluorination of PAN-based carbon fibers was undertaken at room temperature using fluorine-oxygen mixtures, and the influence of oxyfluorination on properties was investigated. The surface characteristics of the modified fiber were determined by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and dynamic contact angle analyzer. The oxyfluorination of carbon fibers was one of the more effective methods to increase surface wettability by the formation of semicovalent C-F bond and C-O bond depending on reaction conditions. When oxygen mole fraction is increased from 0.5 to 0.9, it is probable that attached fluorine atoms at the surface of the fibers reacted with other components. As increased oxyfluorination time and decreased its pressures, semi-covalent peak is increased at 0.5 of oxygen mole fraction. The total surface free energy of oxyfluorinated carbon fibers decreased with increasing oxygen mole fraction over 0.5. These results indicate that the surface of carbon fibers became much more hydrophilic after the short oxyfluorination. The surface free energy of oxyfluorinated carbon fibers progressively decreased after 10 min treatment. The polar components of surface free energies were however, significantly higher for all oxyfluorinated samples than that for the untreated carbon fiber.

Two types of carbon fiber based high modulus- and isotropic-pitch were exposed to isothermal oxidation in air and CO2 gas and the weight change was measured by TGA apparatus. The kinetic equation was introduced f=1--(-atb) and the constant b was obtained in the range of 1.02~1.68 for the isotropic fiber and obtained 0.91~1.93 for the high modulus fiber respectively. In considering the effect of the atmosphere for isothermal oxidation, the value of the constant b obtained in the carbon dioxide was higher than that obtained in the air. Therefore, it was found that the pitch based carbon fiber shows sigmoidal characteristic when it is oxidized in the carbon dioxide. In addition, it was also found that kf = 0.5, which was reaction constant at f = 0.5, was a very useful parameter for evaluation of the oxidation reactivity of pitch based carbon fibers. According to the consideration, it is suggested that the conversion-time curves of the pitch based carbon fibers are correlated by normalized equation f=1--(-AτB), where τ=t/tf= 0.5.

Silver nitrate (AgNO3) powder was mixed into a reformed pitch precursor. Then, the silver-containing pitch was melt spun to form round and "C" shape fibers. A wire mesh was inserted prior to the nozzle to improve the spinnability of the silvercontaining precursor pitch. Silver particles in the carbon fibers (CFs) were detected by XRD and TEM. These tests showed that silver particles were uniformly distributed and the total amount of silver remained constant during stabilization and carbonization. Next, the silver-containing CFs were activated by steam diluted in nitrogen gas. Silver particles accelerated the activation rate, but the specific surface areas of the silver-containing ACFs were similar to those of non-silver containing ACFs at the same burn-off levels. The specific surface area of the C-shaped activated carbon fibers was larger than that of the round activated carbon fibers. The likely reason is that the surface area of a C-shaped CF is about two times larger than that of a round CF when equivalent cross-sectional areas are compared. A small amount of silver particles in the periphery of the CFs was removed during the activation, but the remainder of silver was stayed within the ACFs.