Abstract
A new porous carbon material has been developed utilizing a natural porous structure of rice bran. Theoriginal porous carbon material (rice bran carbon, RBC) are manufactured by mixing the defatted rice branwith a phenol resin, pressure forming, drying, and then carbonizing at 900°C. Therefore, the RBC has aporous structure. In this study, the authors investigated new manufacturing processes to strengthen the RBC. As a preliminary, the RB carbon particles are manufactured impregnating a phenol resin (25wt.%) with thedefatted rice bran and carbonizing at 900°C. In the first strengthening process, the mixture of the carbonized RB carbon particles and a phenol resin are then pressure formed to make a disk-shape RB carbon (CRB) Since the RB carbon particles are brittle and therefore they are broken during the pressure forming, the poresize can be smaller in the CRB than in the RBC. In the second strengthening process, the mixture is in jectionmolded to make a rectangular RB carbon (IMCRB). The pore size is also smaller in the IMCRB. Thecompressive strength, bending strength and fracture toughness are increased in the both strengthened materials.
