Advanced carbon material
The filament between two scales. Carbon nanofibers offer much of the strength and conductivity of carbon nanotubes in a larger, easier-to-handle filament, and the boundary between the two is one of the most contested lines in the carbon family.
What is carbon nanofibers
Carbon nanofibers, or CNFs, are cylindrical carbon nanostructures around 150 nanometres in diameter for the dominant vapour-grown grades, finer or coarser by production route, with lengths from a few microns to quasi-continuous electrospun mats. Most commercial material is vapour-grown (VGCNF), with graphitic layers arranged in stacked-cup, fishbone or ribbon morphologies rather than the seamless concentric tubes of carbon nanotubes. That structure gives a high aspect ratio and an edge-rich surface that bonds and functionalises more readily than a perfect tube wall, at the cost of somewhat lower crystallinity. The boundary with multi-walled carbon nanotubes is genuinely contested: some market analysts count vapour-grown carbon fiber as a carbon nanotube, since filaments of around 150 nanometres are structurally similar to conventional CNTs, and suppliers sell the same vapour-grown grades described as multi-walled carbon nanotubes. That matters when reading market data, because CNF and CNT figures overlap and cannot simply be added together.
Material properties
Market outlook
Carbon nanofiber production is concentrated in a small number of specialist plants. Resonac, the largest established producer, expanded its vapour-grown capacity at its Kawasaki plant in Japan to 400 tonnes a year from October 2023, up from 300, while emerging CO2-to-carbon entrants and catalogue suppliers operate at tens of tonnes a year. No reliable global market figure exists: published CNF market sizes often conflate carbon nanofibers with cellulose nanofibrils, which share the abbreviation, and some analysts count vapour-grown material within the carbon nanotube market instead, so CNF and CNT figures overlap.
Standards and certification
Recent coverage
Ask the ACC team about Carbon Nanofibers: sourcing, applications, membership, or connecting with producers in the network.
Advanced carbons intelligence in your inbox. Always free.
Weekly. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
At a glance