Facile Preparation and Characterization of Carbon Fibers with Core-Shell Structure from Graphene-Dispersed Isotropic Pitch Compounds

Abstract

In this study, isotropic pitch-based carbon fibers were prepared from a mixture of petroleum residue and graphene nanoplatelets with different contents. The softening point and synthetic yield of synthesized isotropic pitches were analyzed and compared to characterize the nature of the pitches. The surface and thermal characteristics of the fibers were observed using scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. From the results, it was observed that the prepared carbon fibers had an interesting core-shell structure. In the TGA analysis with air, the carbon fiber having 0.1 wt.% of graphene showed a higher residue yield than that of the sample having 1.0 wt.% of graphene. This result can be explained due to the graphene being placed on the surface region of the carbon fibers and directly helping to increase the surface area of the carbon fibers, resulting in rapid oxidation due to the enhanced contact area with oxygen.

A Study on Pre-Oxidation of Petroleum Pitch-Based Activated Carbons for Electric Double-Layer Capacitors

“…This indicated that pre-oxidation influences the microcrystalline structures, thereby decreasing the crystallinity [ 49 ]. The d 002 value of the activated carbons (0.371 nm of PP-AC and 0.375 nm of OPP-AC) increased compared to their corresponding precursors (0.360 nm of PP and 0.363 nm of OPP) because of the disordering of the microstructures by chemical activation [ 50 , 51 ]. In addition to XRD, Raman spectroscopy was carried out to observe the microcrystalline properties of the prepared samples ( Figure 2 b).…”

Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon/Polymer Composites: A Review

“…As it is applied to various fields, the demand in the market has increased widely. In addition, recently, research on using AC and ACFs as a filler for the development of high-functional polymer composite materials [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ] has been steadily progressing just like carbon materials such as carbon fibers [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], carbon nanotubes [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 ], and graphene. However, AC and ACFs have great potential to replace other carbon materials, but their potential use in polymer composite materials as reinforcing fillers has not been fully explored.…”