Acid Treatment of Carbon Fiber Surface

The paper describes the modification conducted for the PAN carbon fiber surfaces in the solutions of nitric and sulphuric acids. The authors studied the impact of modification parameters such as temperature, acid concentration, time and ratio of the nitrosulphuric acid on the occurrence of reactive groups on the fiber surface. The authors revealed the presence of carboxylic and ketone reactive groups in the range of 1663-1798 and 1568 cm^-1 in the IR spectra of carbon fibers. The use of the nitrosulphuric acid did not identify sulfur-containing functional groups on the carbon fiber IR spectra. Preliminary acid treatment of the carbon fiber surface led to the formation of uniform continuous coating of a SiO₂ barrier being 127 ± 30 μm by a sol-gel method.