Abstract
Although polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon fibers have been successfully commercialized owing to their excellent material properties, their actual mechanical performance is still much lower than the theoretical values. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand for the use of superior carbon fibers. As such, many studies have been conducted to improve the mechanical performance of carbon fibers. Among the various approaches, designing a strong precursor fiber with a well-developed microstructure and morphology can constitute the most effective strategy to achieve superior performance. In this review, the efforts used to modulate materials, processing, and additives to deliver strong precursor fibers were thoroughly investigated. Our work demonstrates that the design of materials and processes is a fruitful pathway for the enhancement of the mechanical performance of carbon fibers.
Highlights
Carbon fibers have been considered the most promising reinforcement for composites used in various industries owing to their excellent material properties (e.g., high modulus, high tensile strength, and low density (1.75–2.00 g/cm3)) [1]
The increase resulted from the better molecular orientation owing to the plasticizing effect of the acrylamide, and the mechanical property enhancement of the precursor fiber was directly translated to the mechanical performance of the carbon fibers
The current review summarized recent efforts that had been expended to design PAN precursor fibers for mechanically advanced carbon fibers
Summary
Carbon fibers have been considered the most promising reinforcement for composites used in various industries owing to their excellent material properties (e.g., high modulus (up to 900 GPa), high tensile strength (up to 7 GPa), and low density (1.75–2.00 g/cm3)) [1] Their excellent mechanical properties encourage mechanical use, and thermal stability enables high-temperature applications. The mechanical properties of PAN-based carbon fibers are still far below their theoretica values; they are less than 10% of the theoretical tensile strength of2tohfe19carbon– carbon bond and less than 60% of the theoretical modulus of the graphitic microstructure [26]. This encourages research on advanced carbon fibers from PAN-based precursor fibersm.
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