Effect of beating degree of fiber on the development of porosity in polyacrylonitrile-based activated carbon fiber paper.

Activated carbon fiber paper (ACFP) has the potential for adsorption due to their high surface area and low through resistance. In this work, free-standing ACFP was developed from fibrillated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber through wet forming process combined with subsequent pre-oxidation, carbonization and CO 2 activation. A PFI refiner was used to prepare fibrillated PAN fibers with a beating degree of 7, 11, 25 and 60 oSR, respectively. As expected, PAN fibers with high beating degree improved surface area and fine fiber content, which resulted in the dense structure and low porosity of paper, thus influencing later stabilization and pyrolysis, as well as final properties of ACFP. With the increase of beating degree, the oxygen content of pre-oxidized PAN paper increased, but the cyclization index first decreased and then increased. ACFP with higher beating degree possessed higher BET surface area, pore volume and CO 2 uptake capacity. ACFP, prepared from freeze-dried PAN paper, performed better in physicochemical properties than that from plate-press drier under the same beating degree. This study exhibited that ACFP can be a special material featured by scale production, lightweight, and high microporosity of chemical adsorption and separation. [Display omitted] • ACFPs were prepared from fibrillated PAN fiber through wet forming process. • Effects of pore structure of PAN papers on physicochemical properties of ACFPs • CO 2 adsorption on ACFPs was a combined effects of physisorption and chemisorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]