Mesophase Pitch-Based Carbon Fibers: Accelerated Stabilization of Pitch Fibers under Effective Plasma Irradiation-Assisted Modification.

Yuanshuo Peng,Kui Shi,Jun Li,Yue Liu,Yanfeng Li,Ruixuan Tan,Zheqiong Fan,Jianxiao Yang

doi:10.3390/ma14216382

Yuanshuo Peng, Kui Shi + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14216382

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Abstract

Stabilization is the most complicated and time-consuming step in the manufacture of carbon fibers (CFs), which is important to prepare CFs with high performance. Accelerated stabilization was successfully demonstrated under effective plasma irradiation-assisted modification (PIM) of mesophase pitch fibers (PFs). The results showed that the PIM treatment could obviously introduce more oxygen-containing groups into PFs, which was remarkably efficient in shortening the stabilization time of PFs with a faster stabilization heating rate, as well as in preparing the corresponding CFs with higher performance. The obtained graphitized fiber (GF-5) from the PF-5 under PIM treatment of 5 min presented a higher tensile strength of 2.21 GPa, a higher tensile modulus of 502 GPa, and a higher thermal conductivity of 920 W/m·K compared to other GFs. Therefore, the accelerated stabilization of PFs by PIM treatment is an efficient strategy for developing low-cost pitch-based CFs with high performance.

Highlights

Carbon fibers (CFs) are widely applied in the aerospace, automotive, and wind power sectors because of their excellent mechanical and lightweight properties
In comparison to pristine pitch fibers (PFs), plasma irradiation-assisted modification (PIM) treatment led to the appearance of a new Functional analysisgroups peak signal at about 286.3 C1s eV, which was Group related(%)
(2.21 GPa for tensile strength, 502 GPa for tensile modulus) and the highest thermal conthermal conductivity (λ) of 920 W/m·K. These results suggest that moderate PIM treatment ductivity (λ) of 920W/m·K

Summary

Introduction

Carbon fibers (CFs) are widely applied in the aerospace, automotive, and wind power sectors because of their excellent mechanical and lightweight properties. Stabilization has a great effect on the carbonization yield and mechanical properties of CFs [4,5]. It can prevent the fiber from melting during carbonization by promoting the fibers to form a stable oxygen bridge structure through oxidation, dehydrogenation, and crosslinking reactions [6,7]. A fast heating rate can lead to the uneven shrinkage of fibers during stabilization, causing the corresponding CFs to exhibit poor mechanical properties [8,9]. How to shorten the stabilization time while keeping the great mechanical properties of CFs is one of the essential questions in research on the stabilization process

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion