a b s t r a c tWe attempted to use feathers for the production of activated carbon (AC). A water-soluble resol-type phenolic resin was hybridized to prevent the liquefaction of the feathers and to control the graphitization degree of charcoal. The hybridization could effectively increase the yield of charcoal over 30% and maintained the graphitization degree at approximately 0.1, suitable for the production of AC. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and the iodine-adsorption capacity of hybrid charcoal-based AC were 706 m 2 /g and 550 mg/g, respectively, which were 1.7-1.8 times greater than those of the feather-based AC at a similar activation level.

The higher-order structure and the formations of SC and HC of the PLLA/PDLA blend melt-electrospun fibers collected on a rotating target were investigated. The diameter of the fiber decreased and the orientation factor increased with increasing take-up velocity. The formation of SC was promoted with decreasing fiber diameter and with increasing take-up velocity. The fiber collected on the fixed target was amorphous and did not show the molecular orientation to any particular directions indicating that the stretching of the fiber by the electrostatic force did not give much molecular orientation to the fiber. On the other hand, the stretching of the fiber by applying the mechanical taking-up gave a significant degree of the molecular orientation to the fiber direction. The crystalline orientation of HC of the annealed fiber was higher than that of SC.

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Carbonization behavior of the mulberry silk, the tussah silk and the component amino acids have been investigated. From the silk, non-graphitizing carbon could be obtained with a yield of 30%, which was much higher than the value measured for the cellulose-based carbon. The tussah silk showed a higher thermolysis temperature than the mulberry silk, while there was no marked difference in the yield of carbon between these silks. At early stage of carbonization of the silk, amide bonding was dissociated at temperatures higher than 300 , and the amorphous sericin and fibroin were liquefied. The degummed crystalline fibroin fiber, however, was not liquefied during carbonization. The activated carbon from mulberry silk did not show adsorption of methylene blue (MB), while that from tussah silk showed adsorption of MB of about 60 mg/g.