• Carbon letters
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• v.20
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• pp.19-25
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• 2016

Activated carbon fiber (ACF) surfaces are modified using an electron beam under different aqueous solutions to improve the NO gas sensitivity of a gas sensor based on ACFs. The oxygen functional group on the ACF surface is changed, resulting in an increase of the number of non-carbonyl (-C-O-C-) groups from 32.5% for pristine ACFs to 39.53% and 41.75% for ACFs treated with hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide solutions, respectively. We discover that the NO gas sensitivity of the gas sensor fabricated using the modified ACFs as an electrode material is increased, although the specific surface area of the ACFs is decreased because of the recovery of their crystal structure. This is attributed to the static electric interaction between NO gas and the non-carbonyl groups introduced onto the ACF surfaces.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.55-60
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• 2000

The adsorption isotherms can be assigned to typical Type I for Ag and Cu-treated ACFs and Type I and Type II for Ni-treated ACFs. From the DSC analysis, A $g_{0.9}$-ACF occurs only exothermic curve at the temperature of $203^{\circ}C$, and relatively stable composition curves were formed. But C $u_{0.3}$-ACF and C $u_{0.4}$-ACF occur endothermic curves at the temperature of 57.26, 107.02 and $215.87^{\circ}C$. N $i_{1.0}$-ACF occurs large endothermic curves at 59.26, 98.40 and $208.89^{\circ}C$ and N $i_{0.8}$-ACF are shown endothermic curves at 59.26 and $157.77^{\circ}C$. From the biological results, the percentages of the antibacterial effects were 96.5-100 for Ag-ACFs, 92.3-99.8 for Cu-ACFs and 95.5-100 for Ni-ACFs, respectivelylyvelylyly

• Carbon letters
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.114-118
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• 2006

Isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber has been activated by steam diluted in nitrogen in order to characterize the microporosity. Especially, 40 wt% burn-off ACFs were prepared from different conditions to compare the pore structure and size. The ACFs were thinly sliced to investigate the inside pores by TEM and image analyzer. As expected, the adsorption characteristics of these ACFs were quite different from one another because of different pore structure and size. Most pores are not slit-shaped but rather round. Small round micropores become broad and irregular as increasing the activation time and temperature.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.248-254
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• 2005

Silver impregnated activated carbon fibers were post-modified using hydrochloric acid. Adsorption behaviors, SEM morphologies, and functional groups for the silver impregnated ACFs were compared with those of post-modified ACFs. Adsorption isotherms were used to characterize $S_{BET}$, the pore structure and volume of silver-activated carbon fibers (ACFs) before and after acid post-treatment. In order to the reveal the causes of the differences surface states after the samples were washed with hydrochloric acid, outer surface and pore structure were investigated by SEM. And the type and quality of various functional groups were studied from FT-IR spectra and Boehm titration method. Finally, the quantitative properties in silver contents were also examined by EDX spectra.

• Carbon letters
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-54
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• 2004

Isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber was isothermally activated in $CO_2$ atmosphere. Structural parameters of the isotropic carbon fibers and activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The $d_{002}$ and La of the carbon fibers were measured to be 4.04 ${\AA}$ and 23.6 ${\AA}$ and those of ACFs were 4.29 ${\AA}$ and 22.7 ${\AA}$, respectively, representing less ordered through activation process. The pores in the ACFs were characterized by BET, and they showed super-high specific surface area of maximum value 3,495 $m^2/g$ from average pore size of 8.3 ${\AA}$ at 59% burn-off. It was recognized that 8-9 ${\AA}$ was optimum range of pore size for efficient creation of high specific surface area. The average size of the pores formed at higher temperature ($1100^{\circ}C$) was larger than that of the pores formed at lower temperature ($900^{\circ}C$).

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2468-2473
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• 2018

Nitrogen-doped activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared by chemical vapor deposition using melamine powder and acetonitrile for introducing quaternary nitrogen on the commercial ACFs, subsequently heated at $950^{\circ}C$ and activated by steam. Adsorption experiments of nitrate in aqueous solution were also conducted to evaluate adsorption capacity of the prepared ACFs using ion chromatography. The amount of introduced nitrogen content and nitrogen species on activated carbon fibers was examined by CHN elemental analyzer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. As a result, adsorption capacity of quaternary nitrogen-doped ACF (ST-ML-AN-ST) was 0.75 mmol/g, indicating ca. two-times higher than that of untreated ACF (0.38 mmol/g). According to the adsorption data, the Langmuir isotherm model was the best fit. The prepared samples were also regenerated using hydrochloric acid. After regeneration, the adsorption capacity of the nitrogen-doped ACF (ST-ML-AN-ST) showed ca. 80% on average, implying that a portion of nitrates was adsorbed on the prepared ACFs irreversibly.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.624-629
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• 2022

Formaldehyde is an indoor pollutant that is harmful to humans, such as causing respiratory and skin diseases. Nitrogen plasma treatment was performed to introduce nitrogen groups on the surface of the activated carbon fibers (ACFs), and the adsorption characteristics of formaldehyde for the surface-modified ACFs were considered. As the nitrogen gas flow rate increased, the content of nitrogen functional groups introduced to the surface of the ACFs increased by about 7%, and the ratio of nitrogen functional groups to each type present was similar. Ultramicropores increased on the ACFs surface due to the etching effect of plasma treatment. The adsorption efficiency of formaldehyde on the modified ACFs surface was also enhanced. However, under the nitrogen flow rate of 120 sccm or more, the surface of the ACFs was excessively etched, and the specific surface area and the formaldehyde adsorption capacity decreased. Therefore, the content of the nitrogen groups is the main factor in the adsorption of formaldehyde on the nitrogen plasma-treated ACFs, but it can be found that the adsorption efficiency of formaldehyde is improved when the ACFs have a suitable pore structure.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.598-603
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• 2015

In this study, electrochemical properties of pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were investigated by different heat-treatment temperature of the pitch-based ACFs in order to improve the specific capacitance of electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC). The ACFs were prepared by different heat-treatment temperatures of 1050 and $1450^{\circ}C$, after activation with 4 M KOH at $800^{\circ}C$ using stabilized pitch fiber. The specific surface area of prepared ACFs increased from $828m^2/g$ to $987m^2/g$, also the micropore and mesopore volumes of prepared ACFs were increased. These results because pore was produced by desorbing oxygen and hydrogen elements within the ACFs, and pore size was increased by contraction ACFs by heat-treatment process. Because of the porous properties, the specific capacitance was increased from 73 F/g to 119 F/g using cyclic voltammetry with 1 M $H_2SO_4$ at scan rates of 5 mV/s.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.749-755
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• 2003

A development of micropores of $CO_2$activated isotropic carbon fibers from TEM was observed. It was observed that the micropores of activated carbon fibers(ACFs) were consisted of slit-shaped pores(SP) and cylinder-shaped pores(CP). The SPs were formed between two parallel-carbon layers, and the CPs were formed at a place which is connected polygonally by more than two carbon layers. It was shown that the CPs of the ACFs were developed at high degree of burn-offs and at high activation temperature. The pore size distribution of the best ACF, which was observed at a highest value of specific surface area(3,495 $\m^2$/g), showed a continuous distribution in the range of about $4∼l5\AA$, and the median pore size was 6.7$\AA$. The super-high specific surface area of ACFs was found to be due to that the SPs were connected with a maximum size of 7∼8$\AA$ continuously, It is possible that the SPs should be formed in the ACFs in order to show super-high SSA.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2017

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were surface-modified by electron beam (E-beam) irradiation and used as a gas sensor electrode to investigate the effect of E-beam on nitric oxide (NO) gas sensing performance. XPS results showed that the oxygen component of ACFs surface treated by E-beam decreased and $sp^2$ bonded carbon of ACFs surface increased. These results were attributed to the structural transformation of ACFs surface irradiated by E-beam. NO gas sensitivity of the electrode composed of ACFs irradiated by100 kGy increased from about 4% to 8%, and the response time was also meaningfully enhanced from 360 s to 120 s. This is due to the fact that the $sp^2$ carbon bond increased by E-beam irradiation of activated carbon fibers, which significantly affects the resistance change of the electrode in NO gas sensing.