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 polymer-ceramic hybrid, known as 'ceramer', was synthesized by a sol-gel process by incorporating different amount of alkoxide as source of silicon in resorcinol-formaldehyde in presence of basic catalyst to get different percentage of silicon in ultimate carbonized composites. FTIR of the ceramer confirms that it is a network of Si-O-Si, Si-O-CH2 and Si-OH type groups linked with benzene ring. Different amount of silicon in the ceramer exhibits varying temperature of thermal stability and lower coefficient of thermal expansion as compared to pure resorcinol-formaldehyde resin. The lower value of CTE in ceramer is due to existence of silica and resorcinol -formaldehyde in co-continuous phase. Unidirectional composites prepared with ceramer matrix and high-strength carbon fibers show lower value of flexural strength at polymer stage as compared to those prepared with resorcinol-formaldehyde resin. However, after heat treatment to 1450℃, the ceramer matrix composites show large improvement in the mechanical properties, i.e. with 7% silicon in the ceramer, the flexural strength is enhanced by 100% and flexural modulus value by 40% as compared to that of pure resorcinol-formaldehyde resin matrix composites.

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.

Antibacterial behaviors of PAN-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) containing silver metal were investigated. The effects of surface and pore structures of the ACFs were studied by N2/77 K adsorption and D-R plot as a function of silver loading content. The antibacterial activities were investigated by a dilution test against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus; gram positive) and Klebsiella pnemoniae (K. pnumoniae; gram negative). As experimental results, the ACFs showed some decreases in specific surface areas, micropore volumes, and total pore volume with an increase of silver content. However, the antibacterial activities of the ACFs were strongly increased against S. aureus as well as K. pnumoniae, which could be attributed to the presence of antibacterial metal in the ACFs system.

In this work, the effect of a direct oxyfluorination on surface and mechanical interfacial properties of PAN-based carbon fibers is investigated. The changes of surface functional groups and chemical composition of the oxyfluorinated carbon fibers are determined by FT-IR and XPS measurements, respectively. ILSS of the composites is also studied in terms of oxyfluorination conditions. As a result, FT-IR exhibits that the carboxyl/ester groups (C=O) at 1632 cm-1 and hydroxyl group (O-H) at 3450 cm-1 are observed in the oxyfluorinated carbon fibers. Especially, the oxyfluorinated carbon fibers have a higher O-H peak intensity than that of the fluorinated ones. XPS result also shows that the surface functional groups, including C-O, C=O, HO-C=O, and C-Fx after oxyfluorination are formed on the carbon fiber surfaces, which are more efficient and reactive to undergo an interfacial reaction to matrix materials. Moreover, the formation of C-Fx physical bonding of the carbon fibers with fluorine increases the surface polarity of the fibers, resulting in increasing ILSS of the composites. This is probably due to the improvement of interfacial adhesion between fibers and matrix resins.

In this work, the effect of anodic oxidation treatment on Cr(VI) ion adsorption behaviors of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) was investigated. The aqueous solutions of 10 wt% H3PO4 and NH4OH were used for acidic and basic electrolytes, respectively. Surface characteristics and textural properties of ACFs were determined by XPS and N2 adsorption at 77 K. The heavy metal adsorption of ACFs was conducted by ICP. As a result, the adsorption amount of the anodized ACFs was improved in order of B-ACFs 〉 A-ACFs 〉 pristine-ACFs. In case of the anodized treated ACFs, the specific surface area was decreased due to the pore blocking or pore destroying by acidic electrolyte. However, the anodic oxidation led to an increase of the Cr(VI) adsorption, which can be attributed to an increase of oxygen-containing functional groups, such as, carboxylic, lactonic, and phenolic groups. It was clearly found that the Cr(VI) adsorption was largely influenced by the surface functional groups, in spite of the reduced specific surface area of the ACFs.

In this paper, impregnated activated carbon fiber (IACF) was manufactured to pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACF) with potassium hydroxide (KOH) by using wet impregnation method to raise nitrogen oxides (NOx) adsorptivity. The properties of IACF were observed using EPMA, TGA and DSC and NOx adsorptivity was observed at high and low temperature. Before and after adsorption was analyzed using ToF-SIMS for examine surface characterization of adsorbed NOx. The results showed that the better adsorptivity appeared for increasing KOH ratio. So, NOx adsorptivity showed result that is proportional between KOH and the adsorbed amount. On the other hand, adsorbent that manufactured without washing was better NOx adsorptivity than adsorbent that manufactured with washing. The behavior of adsorption show that crossing time of NO and NO2 delayed for a rising adsorptivity. And NO ratio increased but NO2 ratio decreased according as KOH ratio increases. NOx was confirmed through surface analysis that remain in NO2- and NO3- form on IACF surface.

The surface treatment of C-type isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber was carried out by anodic oxidation in 5 wt% NH4NO3 electrolyte. The changes of fiber surface and carbon fiber/ABS resin composites were characterized by SEM, XPS and mechanical properties test. The oxygen functional groups on the surface, such as hydroxyl (-C-OH), carboxyl (-COOH) groups etc., increased after oxidation. Tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus of carbon fiber/ABS composites were also enhanced. However, the impact strength decreased with the improvement of the surface adhesion between CF and matrix.