Designing carbon materials with unique shapes using polymer blending and coating techniques

Three carbon materials having unique and precise shapes were prepared using a polymer blend technique and coating as an auxiliary technique. The polymer blend consists essentially of two kinds of polymers. i.e. a carbon precursor polymer and a decomposable polymer which disappears by pyrolysis without leaving a carbon residue. One of the carbon materials prepared is a carbon fiber including many thin pores. with diameters of sub-mum to 1 mum, elongated along the fiber axis. The next is a carbon tube including a large amount of thin carbon fibers aligned densely along the tube surface. The last one is a microscopic multi-walled carbon tube consisting of three or four walls. The preparation procedures and SEM photographs of these materials are presented and possible applications are discussed briefly. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.