Preparation of ferromagnetic carbon electrode from charcoal blocks

Abstract

A ferromagnetic carbon electrode, if it really exists, will have an interesting role in the electrochemistry because it attracts the paramagnetic species such as free radicals or ion radicals and still it may keep the stabilities that carbon has. Since ferromagnetic carbon has been prepared in a powdery form, to extend that technique for the preparation of a solid block of ferromagnetic carbon, have been expected in the present work. A wood charcoal piece was selected as the skelton of the ferromagnetic electrode. An aromatic hydrocarbon was adsorbed by the charcoal piece. Hydrogen reduction and vacuum heating was applied to this charcoal piece. Removing hydrogen atoms from both charcoal and the hydrocarbon were carried out in a CCl₄ atmosphere at 550°C. The results have shown that mechanically strong ferromagnetic carbon electrode can be obtained by the method described in this report.