U.S.-Korea Cooperative Research: Non-Circular Mesoporous Carbon Fibers for the Absorption of Toxins

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0323859EdieThis award supports continuation of cooperative activities that provide an international dimension to the ongoing research at the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films at Clemson University, an Engineering Research Center funded by NSF. The US principal investigator is the Center Director, Professor Dan Edie. The collaborating partner is Professor Seung Ryu, who directs a research group at the University Industry Joint Institute for New Materials at Chungnam National University in Taejon, Korea. This group is the leading carbon materials research group in Korea and is highly regarded internationally. The US center has a longstanding reputation as the leading carbon fiber research group in the U.S. Their successful prior collaboration resulted in practical methods for producing mesopore-containing activated carbon fibers. These hold great promise in industrial adsorption processes. The collaborating groups now will create mesopore fiber filters of different pore sizes and with metallic inclusions of different particle size, then test and compare the new class of activated fibers in critical consumer and defense applications. This research will require many steps, beginning with production of the pitch precursor (a Korean specialty), and the diverse expertise and resources of the two groups will enable them to share the responsibilities for this work in a highly efficient way. Some of the research steps will be carried out in parallel for the educational value to the participating students in the two groups. The broader impacts of this research project are industrial, environmental and educational. Activated carbon fibers have high adsorption rates, are easy to synthesize and have a wide variety of uses. However those currently in use contain almost entirely micropores (less than 2 nm in diameter) which makes them useless for trapping large molecular chemicals such as pesticides or nitrates and sulfates. Furthermore, their density can lead to becoming plugged up quickly, making frequent replacement necessary. This collaborative research involves a new class of filters with larger, interconnecting "mesopores" (2 to 50 nm in diameter) that offer a variety of improved characteristics for wider applications. These include removing residual chlorine from water, pesticides and other toxins from air, and reducing the escape into the environment of various contaminants from industrial processes. Finally, the joint project will provide international research experience in Korea to five US undergraduate and graduate students from Clemson University, while continuing to benefit all the researchers and students at the US Center through extended visits by Korean graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.