High micropore number and specific surface of carbon fibers pretreated with a swarm of CO2 micro-nanobubbles

초록

Carbon materials are of fundamental importance in the fields of energy, electronics, and the environment. Using petroleum pitch has been proposed as a sustainable method to fabricate carbon fibers, yet the process requires further advancements due to an decrease in pores during post-treatment. Here we hypothesized that dissolving micro-nanobubbles of CO2 in a pretreatment should favor the pore growth of carbon fibers during activation. Results show that when a swarm of CO2 micro-nanobubbles is employed as the sacrificial catalyst, the samples display a specific surface of up to 792 m(2) g(-1). The high density of the CO2 dissociated products caused the sample to include 70.71% micropores, thereby producing a disordered etching texture. The chemical state of the elements revealed that there were no marked impurities. This study provides a new strategy for the development of highly porous materials, that may possibly stimulate more research on advanced performance adsorbents or electrode materials.

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