Atomic level analysis of carbon fibers by the scanning atom probe

摘要

Carbon fibers made from polyacrilonitrile and pitch were mass analyzed utilizing the unique capability of the scanning atom probe, atom-by-atom mass analysis. The most significant mass peak is COH showing that these fibers contain large amounts of oxygen and hydrogen. Unexpected findings are the detection of C27OH and C50ONH ions from polyacrilonitrile-based fibers and C27OH and 7 mass peaks from C30OH5 to C37OH5 from pitch-based fibers. The mass difference of the seven mass peaks is 14amu possibly because of the number of bound CH2 and nitrogen atom. These mass spectra are not found by analyzing other carbon specimens such as carbon nanotubes, graphite, and graphens. Uniqueness of the mass spectra could be due to the 1different fabrication process. The relation of the mass spectra and the tensile strength and modulus of the fibers is discussed. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.