Vertically Aligned Carbon Film Synthesized from Magnetically Oriented Polyacetylene using Morphology Retaining Carbonization

Polyacetylene (PA) films with vertically aligned fibril morphology were synthesized in homeotropic nematic liquid crystal (N-LC) solvent by using a magnetic field of 5 Tesla as an external perturbation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs indicated that the lengths of fibrils from the substrate were $5-35{\mu}m$, depending on polymerization time. Carbonization was carried out using iodine-doped PA film and a morphology-retaining carbonization method. From the SEM results, we confirmed that the vertical morphology of the PA remains unchanged even after carbonization at $800^{\circ}C$. The weight loss of the films due to carbonization at $800^{\circ}C$ is about 20% of the weight of the film before iodine doping. It is expected that vertically aligned carbon might be a precursor for preparing vertical graphite materials, which materials could be useful for electrochemical energy storage and cell electrodes.