Preparation of conductive carbons with high surface area

The preparation of graphitized carbons with high specific surface area was achieved by graphitization, followed by ozone treatment and then activation. This method gave a higher specific surface area, but less structural order, than that involving activation, followed by graphitization and then a second activation (needed because the preceding graphitization step greatly diminished the specific surface area). Excluding the ozone treatment step resulted in low specific surface areas, though it yielded carbons with more structural order. The ozone treatment increased the surface oxygen content of all carbons. At any stage of the treatments, catalytically grown submicron carbon filaments exhibited much larger pore size and pore volume and lower d₀₀₂ than PAN-based or pitch-based carbon fibers.