Reactivity between carbon fibres and anhydride. A study by radiochemical titration and ToF-SIMS analysis Original Research Article

This paper deals with the radiochemical titration of carbon fibres (ex-PAN AS4 from Hercules) with 14C labelled succinic anhydride in view of quantifying the reactivity between anhydride groups and the functionalities (amine, hydroxyl, etc.) of C fibres. A transesterification reaction due to the chemical labelling procedure is observed and is confirmed by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analyses. It is finally used for discriminating between the reactivity of anhydride towards amino groups and other fibre functionalities.