Structural and functional properties of porous carbon fibers composites

Porous carbons have a wide application in many fields such as gas separation, purification and storage, as catalyst support, or liquid phase processing. The porous carbon fiber composite is rigidly bonded in an open, permeable structure. The composites were prepared from short pitch based carbon fibers and a thermosetting resin. The composite was carbonized at 650 degrees C. In this paper we study the influence of carbon fibers size versus structural and functional properties of the composite. The carbon fiber composites were characterized by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), mechanical and thermal measurements.