Renewed interest in the reinforced carbon graphite composites has intrigued the community in the advanced materials fields. In this work, we present a simple carbon nanofibers reinforced carbon graphite composites synthetic method by incorporating mixture of coal tar pitch, synthetic graphite, pitch coke and the dispersion liquid of carbon nanofibers via liquid-phase mixing process. The impact of carbon nanofiber utilization on the microstructures and mechanical properties of carbon graphite composites are studied systematically. The covalent surface modification of carbon nanofibers effectively improves its microstructure and thereby promotes the carbon graphite composites’ dispersion behavior. We propose that a small amount of carbon nanofibers could promote the carbonization process of carbon graphite composites, facilitating the densification of carbon graphite composites and reducing the undesired open porosity. The amount of 0.7 wt % of carbon nanofiber concentration allows the enhancement of bend and compressive strength of carbon graphite composites up to 36.50 MPa and 60.46 MPa, increased by 167.9% and 146.9% compared with the pure carbon graphite composite, respectively. Our findings can be rationalized due to the improvement in the mechanical strength of carbon graphite composites could be attributed due to pull-out of carbon nanofibers from the matrix and bridging effect across the crack pores within the matrix.

Pentachlorophenol (PCP), as one of the common pesticide and preservatives, is easily accumulated in living organisms. Considering the high toxicity of PCP, the development of an effective and sensitive inspection method to determine the residual trace amounts of PCP continues to be a significant challenge. Herein, a convenient and sensitive electrochemical sensor is constructed by modifying glassy carbon electrode with cerium dioxide ( CeO2) nanoparticles anchored graphene ( CeO2-GR) to detect trace PCP. Benefiting from the two-dimensional lamellar structural advantages, the extraordinary electron-transfer properties, as well as the intensive coupling effect between CeO2 nanoparticles and graphene, the afforded CeO2- GR electrode nanomaterial possesses excellent electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of PCP. Under the optimum synthetic conditions, the PCP oxidation peak currents of developed CeO2– GR sample exhibit a wide linear range of 5–150 μM. Moreover, the corresponding detection limit of PCP on the CeO2– GR electrode is as low as 0.5 μM. Apart from providing a promising electrochemical sensor, this work, most importantly, promotes an efficient route for the construction of highly active sensing electrode materials.

For applications in cement-based materials, studies on carbon-based nanomaterials have been almost exclusively on carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, and graphite oxide. Graphene sheets (GPs), as a kind of carbon-based nanomaterials, show unusual mechanical, electrical, optical, and other properties. In this paper, the main focus is to enhance the effect of GPs by improving dispersion through ultrasonication and use of surfactant. Then, dispersion and stability are quantitatively measured by comparing absorbance spectra through spectrophotometry and qualitatively observed through digital imaging and SEM imaging. Therefore, the dispersing protocol is optimized and the most effective and stable dispersion is achieved. At last, the piezoresistivities under compressive load of GPs/cement composites pastes at different additions of GPs are studied by comparing with plain cement paste.

Using the volume-limited Main galaxy sample constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7), we explore the environmental dependence of the fraction of ‘unconventional’ galaxies: luminous blue and faint red. It is found that the fraction of faint red increases apparently with increasing local density, and the fraction of luminous blue declines substantially with increasing local density, which shows that there is an environmental dependence for color beyond that for luminosity.