Surface characteristics of pitch-based carbon fibers by inverse gas chromatography method

The surface characteristics of pitch-based carbon fibers which had been realized by various thermo-final treatments and by various anodic oxidations have been studied by inverse gas chromatography (IGC). The London's dispersive components of the surface free energies of the fibers were determined by Gray's method and the specific interactions of fibers were obtained by the concept of acid-base or electron acceptor-donor, using polar probes of known properties, according to Gutmann's approach and our new method. It has been shown that pitch-based carbon fibers from thermo-final treatments demonstrate a relatively high London's dispersive component and electron donor (base) character. On the other hand, the fibers which were treated by anodic oxidation show that the increase in the current density of the treatment increases the electron acceptor (acid) character.