Chemistry and Physics of Carbon. Volume 26
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Author(s): P. A. Thrower and L. R. Radovic (Eds)
Publisher: Marcel Dekker
ISBN: 0 8247 1953 0
Format: hardback
341pp
Price: $225.00
Review Date: 23 May 2000
Review: This, the latest book in the series, comprises three chapters giving state-of-the-art reviews of carbon research and development. The first chapter, 'Colloidal and supramolecular aspects of carbon', descdribes coalification and carbonisation processes, as controlled by both chemical affinities at the molecular and supramolecular level and intermolecular forces at the colloidal level.The fate of carbon precursors ranging from coal and kerogen to petroleum pitches and anthracene is discussed in terms of basic structural units (BSUs) and association of oriented BSUs. The second chapter, 'Stress graphitization', reviews the evidence for stress graphitisation as revealed by a wide range of experimental techniques. The role of pressure on the structural change in both graphitisable and non-graphitisable carbon precursors is discussed as well as the less-obvious role of various inorganic compounds in accelerating graphitisation under pressure. Most of the chapter is devoted to the technologically-important benefits of stresses induced not by external pressure, but by fibre-matrix interaction during the preparation of carbon/carbon composite materials. The last chapter, 'High quality graphite films produced from aromatic polymides', reviews the graphite-forming process whose theoretical background is supported by the concepts discussed in the first two chapters.