Influence of thermal treatment on porosity formation on carbon fiber from textile PAN

Abstract

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) are known as an excellent adsorbent material due to their particular characteristics such as their high speed adsorption rate and for being easy to handle. The ACFs are commercially manufactured from carbon fibers (CF) which receive an additional activation process and can be produced from celluloses, phenolic resin, pitch and Polyacrylonitrile (PAN). In the present work, the oxidized 5.0 dtex textile PAN fiber was carbonized to CFs formation. During the carbonization process in different heating rates, the topographic features changes on fibers were monitored in order to determine the best carbonization condition for CFs production to be used as raw material for ACF. Different heating rates and maximum temperature of treatment were tested and the results indicated that it is possible to produce poorly activated carbon fiber, directly from oxidized textile PAN fiber, by one single step production process.