Microporus activated carbon fiber felt from Brazilian textile PAN fiber: preparation, characterization and application as super capacitor electrode

Activated carbon fibers (ACF) are known as excellent adsorbent materials due to their fast adsorption rate and easy handling characteristic. The ACF can be manufactured from the polyacrylonitrile fiber, based on an usual carbon fibers (CF) production process accomplished by an additional activation process. The aim of the present work is to describe the production, chemical/morphological characterization and application potentiality of activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF) produced from textile PAN fiber, using a set of homemade equipment. The 5.0 dtex PAN fiber tow with 200 thousand filaments was oxidized and used as raw material for felt production. The oxidized PAN fiber felt (OPFF) was displaced in a special sample holder, carbonized (900 °C) and then activated in CO2 atmosphere at 1000 °C in an electric tubular furnace. All steps of the process were performed as fast as possible, and characterization was done by 77 K N2 isotherms, adsorption isotherms in liquid phase, scanning electronic microscope, X-ray diffraction and surface chemistry by Bhoem methodology. The results confirmed the production of essentially microporous (pore < 3.2 nm, centered on 1.2 nm) and 1,300 m2/g surface area. The ACFF produced have demonstrated a strong potential application as electrode supercapacitor.