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Study of a melt processable polymer precursor for carbon fiber

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Abstract

Carbon fibers (CF) are predominantly being manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based precursors which require solution spinning utilizing health hazardous organic solvent. This also adds to the cost of production due to the investment for the solvent recovery. Study of melt processable precursors has long been sought as a solution for health and environmental problems associated with the use of hazardous solvent. No use of solvent for spinning will also reduce the cost of manufacturing. Our coworker Deng et al. reported the possibility of using acrylonitrile-co-1-vinylimidazole (AN/VIM) copolymer as melt processable CF precursor. Here we report a successful preparation of carbon fiber from the co-polymer. We successfully demonstrated the preparation of thinner precursor fibers and carbon fibers through our optimization study of melt spinning, annealing, stabilization and carbonization.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Korean Institute of Carbon Convergence Technology for generous funding and collaboration in this project. NMR support was provided by the NSF CHE-1126177 Grant. Last not least, the authors also thank Dr. Wenjin Deng and Professor Dennis Smith, Jr. for their introduction of melt-processable polymer science for carbon fiber research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA

    Samsuddin F. Mahmood, Benjamin L. Batchelor, Bruce M. Novak & Duck Yang

  2. Korea Institute of Carbon Convergence Technology, Jeonju, Korea

    Minhye Jung & Kyusoon Park

  3. Department of Material Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA

    Walter E. Voit

Authors
  1. Samsuddin F. Mahmood
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  2. Benjamin L. Batchelor
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  3. Minhye Jung
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  4. Kyusoon Park
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  5. Walter E. Voit
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  6. Bruce M. Novak
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  7. Duck Yang
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Correspondence to Duck Yang.

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Mahmood, S.F., Batchelor, B.L., Jung, M. et al. Study of a melt processable polymer precursor for carbon fiber. Carbon Lett. 29, 605–612 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-019-00059-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-019-00059-3

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