A quantification and investigation of surface microporosity in carbon fibres using labelling and XPS

An investigation is presented into the surface microporosity of Type 1 carbon fibres, with a range of oxidative treatment levels, and in which trichloromethane labelling and XPS analysis is used. Detection of the halogen atoms in molecules retained in the micropores shows that the oxidation‐dependent micropore volume is 2–13 × 10 −5 cm 3 per gram of fibre, which is in the expected range from results given in the literature. The model of the carbon fibre surface previously reported has been extended and it is proposed that the functional groups are bound to edge carbon atoms in the micropores. This is shown to be consistent with structures given by other workers, from x‐ray diffraction and electron microscopy.