Surface structure of the PAN‐based carbon fibres studied by the scanning probe microscopy (SPM)

Abstract
Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and scanning force microscopy (SFM) have been applied to characterize the surface topography of carbon fibres before and after activating electrochemical treatment. Electrochemical activation is seen to have a significant effect on the structure of the surface layers. The influence of scanning parameters on STM and SFM images was examined and it was found that alteration of the scanning direction allows important additional information about surface structure of carbon fibres to be obtained. It also makes it possible to estimate the contribution of the artefacts to resulting images. The results indicate the great potential of both STM and SFM for three‐dimensional surface characterization of carbon fibres.