Syed Mohd Saufi and Ahmad Fauzi Ismail

pp. 843 - 854

Abstract

This paper reports the development and characterization of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon
hollow fiber membrane. Nitrogen was used as an inert gas during pyrolysis of the PAN hollow fiber membrane into carbon membrane. PAN membranes were pyrolyzed at temperature ranging from 500^o
C to
800^o
C for 30 minutes of thermal soak time. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas sorption analysis were applied to characterize the PAN based carbon
membrane. Pyrolysis temperature was found to significantly change the structure and properties of carbon
membrane. FTIR results concluded that the carbon yield still could be increased by pyrolyzing PAN membranes at temperature higher than 800^o
C since the existence of other functional group instead of CH group.
Gas adsorption analysis showed that the average pore diameter increased up to 800^o
C.