Carbon bonded carbon fiber composites for regenerable filtration

CBD Porton Down is investigating the use of carbon bonded carbon fibre composites for adsorption applications. Composites have been obtained from the Centre for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky and from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. The materials are prepared from a pitchbased carbon fibre precursor, which is mixed with a binder to form a monolith and then activated to form a highly porous composite (nitrogen BET surface areas of up to ca. 1700 m g have been measured for the samples used in this work). The continuous carbon skeleton means that the composites conduct electricity, and can thus be directly heated by applying a potential difference across them. For this reason, particular emphasis is being placed on assessing their potential for use in regenerable filtration.