Large-scale and low-cost synthesis of porous carbon on the surface of commercial chlorinated polymers under the action of an intense electron beam of microsecond duration

Abstract

The formation of a layer of porous carbon on the surface of low-cost commercial chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) with the addition of ferrocene under the action of an intense electron beam of microsecond duration was investigated. The polymer was irradiated using a pulsed fore-vacuum plasma source of a large-diameter electron beam (cross-sectional area ∼100 cm2), which allows minimizes polymer charging during irradiation. The methods of scanning and transmission electron microscopy, EDX spectroscopy, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to study the carbon layers. We found that the carbon layer consists mainly of thin (∼10 nm) sheets of amorphous carbon containing curved graphene layers up to 4 nm in length. According to the XPS data analysis, the relative fraction of graphitized carbon (sp2-hybridized carbon) reaches 80% in the surface layer with a thickness of up to 3 nm. Possible mechanisms for the formation of a porous carbon layer on the CPVC surface were discussed. The porous carbon layer has a specific capacitance of 14 mF/cm2 at a scan rate of 5 mV/s. In many applications, it can be an alternative to the laser-induced graphene formed on the surface of expensive high-temperature polyimide.