We have demonstrated the feasibility of using electrospinning method to fabricate long and continuous composite nanofiber sheets of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) incorporated with zinc oxide (ZnO). Such PAN/ZnO composite nanofiber sheets represent an important step toward utilizing carbon nanofibers (CNFs) as materials to achieve remarkably enhanced physico-chemical properties. In an attempt to derive these advantages, we have used a variety of techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) to obtain quantitative data on the materials. The CNFs produced are in the diameter range of 100 to 350 nm after carbonization at 1000℃. Electrical conductivity of the random CNFs was increased by increasing the concentration of ZnO. A dramatic improvement in porosity and specific surface area of the CNFs was a clear evidence of the novelty of the method used. This study indicated that the optimal ZnO concentration of 3 wt% is enough to produce CNFs having enhanced electrical and physico-chemical properties.

Raman spectroscopy has been used to investigate the structure of coal tar pitch heat-treated up to 3000℃ by using 514.5 run Ar ion laser line. Four critical temperature ranges were found on pyrolyzing coal tar pitch, which correspond to four distinct processes from disordered carbons to the well-ordered graphite structure. The range of heat treat temperature (HTT) below 1000℃ corresponds to gas evolution during the pyrolysis of coal tar pitch. Above the HTT are correlated to rearrangements of enlarged molecules, growth of the molecules along the direction of plane, finally stacking in the normal direction of the plane, in the respective HTT ranges of 1000-2000, above 2000 and 2500-3000℃.

Coal tar pitch was chemically modified with 10 wt% benzoquinone (BQ) to raise the softening point of isotropic pitch precursor and the precursor was melt-spun into pitch fibers, stabilized, carbonized and activated with steam at 900℃. The weight loss of carbon fiber-benzoquinone (CF-BQ) increased with the increase of activation time like other fibers, but was lower than those of Kureha fiber at the same activation time in spite of larger geometric surface area. Those adsorption isotherms fitted into 'Type I' according to Brunauer, Deming, Deming and Teller classification. However, there was very thin low-pressure hysteresis that lower closure points of the hysteresis are about 0.42-0.45. From the pore size distribution curves, there might be some micropores having narrow-necked bottle; a series of interconnected pore is more likely than discrete bottles. FT-IR studies showed that the functional groups such as carboxyl, quinone, and phenol were introduced to ACFs-BQ surface after steam activation. Methylene blue decolorization and iodine adsorption capacity of ACF-BQ increased linearly with the increase of specific surface area and was larger than that of ACF-Kureha at the same specific surface area.