The Effects of Various Metallic and Carbonaceous Substrates on the Vapor Phase Growth of Carbon Fiber from Benzene

摘要

Growth of carbon fibers from benzene was investigated at 1100℃, by using various metallic and carbonaceous materials as a substrate. Iron was the most effective metal substrate for carbon fiber formation, while cerium, cobalt, zinc, and nickel were slightly active. The use of carbonaceous substrates, such as active carbon, graphite, and carbon black, was also found to enhance the fibers formation even in the absence of metal substrates. These carbonaceous substrates showed the even more pronounced activity when impregnated with iron; the formation density was 90-130 fibers per mm2. X-Ray microanalysis revealed that iron was incorporated into and almost equally distributed over the whole region of the fiber irrespectively of the surface or the interior. From these results it was suggested that a carbon fiber grew by some catalytic action of iron on a nucleus of a very fine graphitic crystallite. Alternatively, iron may have a function to create optimum nuclei.