Vertically Aligned Carbon Film Synthesized from Magnetically Oriented Polyacetylene using Morphology Retaining Carbonization

Abstract

Polyacetylene (PA) films with vertically aligned fibril morphology were synthesized in homeotropic nematic liquid crystal (N-LC) solvent by using a magnetic field of 5 Tesla as an external perturbation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs indicated that the lengths of fibrils from the substrate were 5-35 mu m, depending on polymerization time. Carbonization was carried out using iodine-doped PA film and a morphology-retaining carbonization method. From the SEM results, we confirmed that the vertical morphology of the PA remains unchanged even after carbonization at 800 degrees C. The weight loss of the films due to carbonization at 800 degrees C is about 20% of the weight of the film before iodine doping. It is expected that vertically aligned carbon might be a precursor for preparing vertical graphite materials, which materials could be useful for electrochemical energy storage and cell electrodes.