Fabrication of carbon papers using polyacrylonitrile fibers as a binder

Carbon papers (CPs) have been fabricated using wet-laying carbon fibers (CFs) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the PAN fibers tightly interconnected the CF junctions with the pores between the fibers. The tensile strength of the carbon webs (CWs) increased as the fraction of PAN fibers used as the binder increased. The CW fabricated with 0.15 wt% PAN fibers had a tensile strength six times greater than that of the CW without PAN fibers. Moreover, by mixing the CFs with PAN fibers in water, the CFs separated from each other in the webs due to the interruption of hydrophobicity between the CFs. After mixing with PAN fibers, the CWs were carbonized at 1200 °C in the presence of a phenolic resin. The PAN fibers maintained their morphology due to their high carbon content after carbonization. The electrical resistivity of the CPs with high PAN fiber content was significantly lower than that of a CP without PAN fibers due to the interconnection of the CFs by the carbonized PAN fibers.