Volume 4 Issue 1 ( March 2017 )

Highly graphitized carbon with high electric conductivity was successfully prepared from non-graphitizable carbon (NGC) via breaking-down and merging of boundaries of microdomains through the potassium hydroxide (KOH) treatment and subsequent graphitization. After the graphitization at 2800°C, the KOH-treated sample showed modified domains having merged boundaries between the microdomains which could be observed in graphitizable carbon (GC). Such a domain-modified carbon showed less than half electric resistivity of graphitized NGC, indicating that macroscopic properties, such as electric conductivity, of carbon materials can be improved via the modification of nanometer-scale microdomain and domain structures.

Keywords: Electric conductivity, Graphitizable carbon, Microdomain, Non-graphitizable carbon