Abstract
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 m2 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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Conceptualization was done by JHL and DHS; methodology was done by SHL and DHS; writing—original draft preparation was done by JHL. Writing—review and editing was carried out by SHL and DHS. JHL carried out the visualization.
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Lee, J.H., Lee, S.H. & Suh, D.H. High micropore number and specific surface of carbon fibers pretreated with a swarm of CO2 micro–nanobubbles. Environ Chem Lett 19, 3565–3571 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01243-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01243-6