A commercial activated carbon fiber with micropores, CH700-20 (Kuraray), wa
s reformed to a mesoporous one by catalytic gasification. The catalytic gas
ification was composed of two steps: CO2 pretreatment and air oxidation. Co
balt was used as the catalyst and gasification was performed in the tempera
ture range of 500-700 degrees C. BET surface area and pore volume of cataly
tically modified carbon fiber were analyzed by N-2 adsorption. BET surface
area of the original CH700-20 was 1,711 m(2)/g, and the mesopore volume per
centage was 11.9%. After catalytic gasification, BET surface area was simil
ar to the original CH700-20, while mesopore volume percentage increased up
to 56%. The average pore size of mesopores was 3-4 nm in diameter. The aver
age size of mesopores could be controlled with nanometer resolution by vary
ing the temperature and time of activation.