Chemical and micro-structural changes in glass-like carbon during high temperature heat treatment

A glass-like carbon was fabricated using furan resin. The influence of heat treatment temperature during fabrication process on the chemical and micro-structural changes was studied by various analytical and spectroscopic methods including TGA, FT-IR, CHN, TEM and XRD. The chemical resistance properties of the fabricated glasslike carbon were also investigated. It has been found that the heat-treated samples at higher temperature up to 2600degreesC in N-2 atmosphere had little weight loss, small amounts of functional groups, and high carbon content. The fabricated glass-like carbons upon heat treatment at 2600degreesC showed an amorphous stage without any grain growth and/or reconstruction of structure. The glass-like carbon had much better chemical resistance than the artificial graphite, and exhibited a high chemical resistance due to its low surface areas, minimum impurities, and low graphite crystallites.