Pitch studies

The principal problem in pitch-based carbon fiber is the control of the properties of the precursor pitch. Studies of pitch chemistry have contributed significantly to the development of pitch-based carbon fiber, including some investigations whose practical purpose was unrelated to carbon fiber. Since about 1969, a basic understanding of pitch chemistry has been pursued aggressively in Japan, and three studies of particular significance to carbon fiber are summarized here. 

Variables It is possible to identify a large number of variables that influence the design and performance of a chemical reactor with heat transfer, from the vessel size and type catalyst distribution among the beds catalyst type, size, and porosity to the geometry of the heat-transfer surface, such as tube diameter, length, pitch, and so on. Experience has shown, however, that the reactor temperature, and often also the pressure, are the primary variables feed compositions and velocities are of secondary importance and the geometric characteristics of the catalyst and heat-exchange provisions are tertiary factors. Tertiary factors are usually set by standard plant practice. Many of the major optimization studies cited by Westerterp et al. (1984), for instance, are devoted to reactor temperature as a means of optimization. 

Shin, S,. Jang, J., Yoon, S. H. and Mochida, I., A study on the effect of heat treatment on functional groups of pitch-based activated carbon fiber using FTIR, Carbon, 1997,35(12), 1739 1743. 

Mochida, I., Kawano, S., Hironaka, M., Kawabuchi, Y., Korai, Y., Matsumura, Y. and Yoshikawa, M., Kinetic study on reduction of NO of low concentration in air with NHj at room temperature over pitch-based active carbon fibers of moderate surface area, Langmuir, 1997, 13(20), 5316 5321. 

To date, there has been relatively little work reported on the mesophase pitch rheology which takes into account its liquid crystalline nature. However, several researchers have performed classical viscometric studies on pitch samples during and after their transformation to mesophase. While these results provide no information pertaining to the development of texture in mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers, this information is of empirical value in comparing pitches and predicting their spinnability, as well as predicting the approximate temperature at which an untested pitch may be melt-spun. 

Studies on the electronic structure of carbon nanotube (CNT) is of much importance toward its efficient utilisation in electronic devices. It is well known that the early prediction of its peculiar electronic structure [1-3] right after the lijima s observation of multi-walled CNT (MWCNT) [4] seems to have actually triggered the subsequent and explosive series of experimental researches of CNT. In that prediction, alternative appearance of metallic and semiconductive nature in CNT depending on the combination of diameter and pitch or, more specifically, chiral vector of CNT expressed by two kinds of non-negative integers (a, b) as described later (see Fig. 1). 

X-ray diffraction studies indicate the existence of a novel double-stranded DNA helical conformation in which AZ (the rise per base pair) = 0.32 nm and P (the pitch) = 3.36 nm. What are the other parameters of this novel helix (a) the number of base pairs per turn, (b) Abase pair), and (c) c (the true repeat) ... 

Yazami et al. [128, 129] studied the mechanism of electrolyte reduction on the carbon electrode in polymer electrolytes. Carbonaceous materials, such as cokes from coal pitch and spherical mesophase and synthetic and natural graphites, were used. The change in with composi-... 

A peptoid pentamer of five poro-substituted (S)-N-(l-phenylethyl)glycine monomers, which exhibits the characteristic a-helix-like CD spectrum described above, was further analyzed by 2D-NMR [42]. Although this pentamer has a dynamic structure and adopts a family of conformations in methanol solution, 50-60% of the population exists as a right-handed helical conformer, containing all cis-amide bonds (in agreement with modeling studies [3]), with about three residues per turn and a pitch of 6 A. Minor families of conformational isomers arise from cis/trans-amide bond isomerization. Since many peptoid sequences with chiral aromatic side chains share similar CD characteristics with this helical pentamer, the type of CD spectrum described above can be considered to be indicative of the formation of this class of peptoid helix in general. 

The suggestion of a helical host molecule was originally put forward by Hanes 136) and then developed by Freudenberg and his colleagues 137). Chemical 138 140) and X-ray diffraction studies by Rundle et al.141 143) and by Bear 144,145) demonstrated that these ideas were correct, and revealed that the helical structure had an outer diameter of 13.0 A, an inner diameter of 5 A, and a pitch of 8.0 A with six glucose units per turn. The iodine atoms were arranged in a linear fashion with an average I-I separation of approximately 3.1 A. These early results have been reviewed 146, 147). They represent the first confirmed example of helical structure for a biopolymer. 

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