Activated Carbon Fibers “Thickly Overgrown” by Ag Nanohair Through Self-Assembly and Rapid Thermal Annealing

Abstract

Anisotropic nanomaterial-modified carbon fibers attract increasing attention because of their superior properties over traditional ones. In this study, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) “thickly overgrown” by Ag nanohair were prepared through self-assembly and rapid thermal annealing. Viscose fibers with well-dispersed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on surfaces were first prepared through self-assembly of hyperbranched poly(amino-amine) (HBPAA)-capped AgNPs on viscose surfaces. HBPAA endowed the AgNP surfaces with negative charges and abundant amino groups, allowing AgNPs to monodispersively self-assemble to fiber surfaces. Ag nanohair-grown ACFs were prepared by sequential pre-oxidation and carbonization. Because the carbonization furnace was open-ended, ACFs are immediately transferrable to the outside of the furnace. Therefore, the Ag liquid adsorbed by ACF pores squeezed out to form Ag nanowires through thermal contraction. FESEM characterization indicated that Ag nanohairs stood on ACF surface and grew from ACF caps. XPS and XRD characterization showed that Ag successfully assembled to fiber surfaces and retained its metallic state even after high-temperature carbonization. TG analysis suggested that Ag nanohair-grown ACFs maintained their excellent thermal stabilities. Finally, the fabricated ACFs showed excellent and durable antibacterial activities, and the developed method may provide a potential strategy for preparing metal nanowire-grown ACFs.

Laccase immobilization and surface modification of activated carbon fibers by bio-inspired poly-dopamine

“…It is well known that pristine ACFs possess good thermal stability. 43 In this study, the ACFs exhibited weight loss of approximately 7% when the temperature reached 800 C, indicating excellent thermal stability. However, the TG curve of the DA-ACFs showed that a weight loss of approximately 5% occurred from 100 C to 180 C, which was caused by vaporization of the water bound to the bers.…”

Ultrasonication-assisted fabrication of porous ZnO@C nanoplates for lithium-ion batteries

“…XPS was conducted to detect the surface chemistry of the ZnO@C composites. The survey spectra displayed in Supplementary Figure 4A confirmed that ZnO@C was composed of Zn, O, and C. Figure 2B shows the high-resolution Zn 2p spectrum with two obvious peaks at 1022 and 1045 eV, corresponding to the 2p 3/2 and 2p 1/2 of Zn, respectively [16] . The C 1s spectrum is shown in Figure 2C, where the peak at 284.5 eV was associated with sp 2 carbon.…”