Surface treatments of vapor-grown carbon fibers produced on a substrate: Part II: Atomic force microscopy Original Research Article

Vapor-grown carbon fibers (VGCF) were produced from a methane–hydrogen mixture on a substrate seeded with an iron catalyst. The fibers thus produced were submitted to different oxidative treatments: nitric acid, oxygen plasma and partial gasification with air or carbon dioxide. These fibers have been previously characterised by X-ray diffraction, SEM, nitrogen adsorption, XPS and ToF–SIMS. In the present paper we report on the examination of their surface nano-topography by atomic force microscopy (AFM).