The influence of activation on the surface area and porous structure of carbon fibers based on viscose and PAN (UKN-5000)

Abstract

The results of a research on the influence of activation of carbon fibers in CO2 current on the change in their specific adsorptive surface and porous structure are presented. The fibers under study were produced from viscose and polyacrylonitrile. It is shown that as a result of activation the specific surface of carbon fibers can be increased from 0.3 to 1900 m2 /g, and the volume of porous space, from 0.1 to 400 cm3 /g. It is established that the nature of the initial fiber has an essential influence on the extent of change in specific surface and porous structure. After activation fibers based on viscose have significantly greater values of specific surface and a bigger fraction of micropores in their structure than fibers based on polyacrylonitrile.

Keywords

• activation, surface area, sorption capacity, pore volume, pore size