Abstract
Naphtha cracking bottom oil was reformed with heat treatment and then spun at $310^{\circ}C$. These pitch-based carbon fibers were carbonized at $1000^{\circ}C$ after oxidation at $280^{\circ}C$, for 90 min. These fibers were chemically activated with molar ratio of KOH/CF (1 : 1) at different temperatures ($250{\sim}900^{\circ}C$) for 1 hr. The process of activation was characterized with DTA, TGA, BET surface area and pore size distribution. The activation of fibers by KOH was performed by several process. One is the reduction process that carbon fiber was reacted with $K_2O$ produced from dehydration process above $400^{\circ}C$. The other is the process that $K_2CO_3$ was directly reacted with carbon fiber. At $800^{\circ}C$, the activation was performed by catalyzed mechanism that $K_2O$ was obtained from the reaction of metal potassium with $CO_2$, then was changed to $K_2CO_3$. At $870^{\circ}C$, the activation was also observed that activation mechanism was promoted by metal catalyst with $CO_2$ from decomposition of $K_2CO_3$. The specific surface area of prepared activated carbon fibers was dependent on the activation mechanism. The specific surface area was in the range of $1519{\sim}2000\;cm^3/g$ and was the largest prepared at $870^{\circ}C$. The pores developed were mostly micropores which was very narrow and uniform. The total pore volume was $0.58{\sim}0.77\;cm^3/g$.