Activated Carbon Fibers Prepared from Quinoline and Isoquinoline Pitches

• Published in: Journal of The Japan Petroleum Institute Vol. 41; no. 6; pp. 399 - 405
• Main Authors: MOCHIDA, Isao, AN, Kay Hyeok, KORAI, Yozo, KOJIMA, Takashi, KOMATSU, Makoto, YOSHIKAWA, Masaaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo The Japan Petroleum Institute 01.11.1998; Sekiyu Gakkai
• Subjects: Activated carbon fiber; Applied sciences; Chemical modifications; Chemical reactions and properties; Exact sciences and technology; Isoquinoline; Nitrogen compound; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Polynuclear aromatics; Quinoline; Lewis acid; Carbonization; Chemical modification; Catalytic reaction; Preparation; Condensation polymerization; Surface analysis; Experimental study; Precursor; Quinoline derivative polymer; Carbon fiber
• ISSN: 0582-4664
• DOI: 10.1627/jpi1958.41.399

Nitrogen enriched activated carbon fibers(ACFs) were prepared from isotropic quinoline and isoquinoline pitches produced by the catalytic action of HF/BF3 through spinning, stabilization, carbonization, and oxidative activation. The pitches exhibited excellent spinnability, and the resultant fibers had mechanical properties comparable to those of commercial fibers. The surface areas and nitrogen contents of the ACFs, obtained hereby were 740-860m2/g and 4-5.6%, respectively, at around 50wt% of burn-off. FT-IR and XPS analyses identified the surface oxygen and nitrogen functional groups on the stabilized and activated fibers. The ACFs from isoquinoline pitch(IQP-ACF) exhibited higher basicity(1.3meq/g) than commercial ACFs of similar surface areas(0.68 and 0.25meq/g for PAN(FE-300) and coal tar pitch(OG-8A) based ACFs, respectively) due to a higher basic nitrogen content on the surface. The activation appears to expose basic nitrogen atoms, which were located under the surface. The basicity of ACF from quinoline pitch(QP-ACF) was much lower than that of IQP-ACF, however, QP-ACF adsorbed 74mg/g of SO2, which was 1.4 and 2.3 times higher than that over FE-300 and OG-8A. In contrast, IQP-ACFs showed less adsorption of SO2 than that of QP-ACF and FE-300, but more than that of OG-8A. Oxidation activity of ACF surface may participate in the adsorption of SO2 in the form of SO3 or H2SO4. The oxygen functional groups under the influence of neighboring nitrogen atoms may be the active sites for the oxidative adsorption.