Polyacrylonitrile/Carbon Nanotube Composite: Precursor for Next Generation Carbon Fiber

Abstract

In the preliminary study it was reported that gel spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and PAN/single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) composite fibers have been stabilized in air and subsequently carbonized in argon at 1100 C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and infrared spectroscopy suggested that the presence of single wall carbon nanotube affects PAN stabilization. Carbonized PAN/SWNT fibers exhibited 10 to 30 nm diameter fibrils embedded in brittle carbon matrix, while the control PAN carbonized under the same conditions exhibited brittle fracture with no fibrils. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy suggests the existence of well developed graphitic regions in carbonized PAN/SWNT and mostly disordered carbon in carbonized PAN. Tensile modulus and strength of the carbonized fibers were as high as 250 N/tex and 1.8 N/tex for the composite fibers and 168 N/tex and 1.1 N/tex for the control PAN based carbon fibers, respectively. The addition of 1 wt% carbon nanotubes enhanced the carbon fiber modulus by 49% and strength by 64%. Carbon fiber diameter in this study was above 5 micrometer. In a follow up study, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and PAN/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite (99/1) based carbon fibers with an effective diameter of about 1 micrometer have been processed using island-in-a-sea bi-component cross-sectional geometry and gel spinning. PAN/CNT (99/1) based carbon fibers processed using this approach exhibited a tensile strength of 4.5 GPa (2.5 N/tex) and tensile modulus of 463 GPa (257 N/tex), while these values for the control PAN-based carbon fiber processed under the similar conditions were 3.2 GPa (1.8 N/tex) and 337 GPa (187 N/tex), respectively. Properties of these 1 micrometer diameter carbon fibers have been compared to the properties of the larger diameter (> 6 micrometers) PAN and PAN/CNT based carbon fibers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 23, 2010
Accession Number
ADA519646

Entities

Organizations

  • Georgia Tech

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alkenes
  • Carbon Fibers
  • Carbon Nanotube Composites
  • Carbon Nanotubes
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemistry
  • Composite Materials
  • Electron Microscopy
  • Graphitic Materials
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Mechanics
  • Modulus Of Elasticity
  • Polymers
  • Spectra
  • Tensile Properties
  • Tensile Strength

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Reinforced Composite Materials

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics