• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2001

A pitch precursor for a general purpose carbon fiber was prepared by condensation of pyrolized fuel oil (petroleum residual oil) with bromine under nitrogen blowing. such a condensation raised the softening point of the pitch from 4$0^{\circ}C$ to $265^{\circ}$ with a yield of 43%. The pitch precurosr showed an enhanced aromaticity and enlarged molecular size, which led to a reduction in molecular mobility and optical isotropy. The precursor was spun into fibers of $20\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter at a take-up speed of 700m/min. The fiber was stepwise stabilized in air and carbonized in Ar gas to obtain an isotropic carbon fiber. The carbon fiber exhibited tensile strengths of 500-800 ㎫though the fiber was formed via a crude method. The electric conductivity of the carbon fiber was relatively high, 2.2$\times$$10^2$S/cm, sufficient to be used as electrode materials.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1387-1393
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• 1996

A study on mesophase pitch as a matrix precursor of carbon fiber reinforced carbon (C/C) composite has been recently presented. This study is concerned with the production of mesophase pitch as matrix precursors for C/C composite from coal tar pitch. A commercial coal tar pitch was heat-treated at 25$0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours to remove low molecular weight fraction from the pitch then increasing the temperature of the pitch to between 350~45$0^{\circ}C$ to produce mesophase pitch. The pitch was continuously stirred during this time and nitrogen gas was continuously bubbled through the pitch. Spherical and bulk mesophases were formed in the pitch after heat-treatment,. Parent and mesophae pitches were characterized by elemental analysis coke yield solubi-lity in tetrahydrofuran and hexane and an optical microscopy to measure the mesiophase content. It was neces-sary to produce C/C composite that a mesophase pitch with about 30-40 vol% mesophase spherulites can be infiltrated into a fiber preform without a filter effect as a matrix precursor conditions. This condition was satisfied with mesophase pitch heat treated at 40$0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours. The other heat treatment conditions showed the nuclei of mesophase or bulk mesophae which were not satisfied with the matix precursor condition.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.247-254
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• 2014

In this work, thermal treatment accompanied with different acid treatments was applied to a commercial coal tar pitch (CTP) to obtain a spinnable precursor pitch for carbon fiber. In the case of thermal treatment only, a relatively high reaction temperature of between $380^{\circ}C$ and $400^{\circ}C$ was required to obtain a softening point (SP) range of $220^{\circ}C-260^{\circ}C$ and many meso-phase particles were created during the application of high reaction temperature. When nitric acid or sulfuric acid treatment was conducted before the thermal treatment, the precursor pitch with a proper SP range could be obtained at reaction temperatures of $280^{\circ}C-300^{\circ}C$, which were about $100^{\circ}C$ lower than those for the case of thermal treatment only. With the acid treatments, the yield and SP of the precursor pitch increased dramatically and the formation of meso-phase was suppressed due to the lower reaction temperatures. Since the precursor pitches with acid and thermal treatment were not spinnable due to the inhomogeneity of properties such as molecular weight distribution and viscosity, the CTP was mixed with ethanol before the consecutive nitric acid and thermal treatments. The precursor pitches with ethanol, nitric acid, and thermal treatments were easily spinnable, and their spinning and carbon fiber properties were compared to those of air blowing and thermal treated CTP.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.115-119
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• 2022

The performance of carbon fiber is important for the production of these high-quality polymer composite materials such as CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic). For this purpose, it is essential to use an optimized spinning process for improving the mechanical, physical, and structural properties of the precursor fiber, which greatly affects the properties of the carbon fiber, and the use of a suitable precursor polymer. In this study, the content of MAA (Methacrylic Acid), MAA injection time, and concentration of AIBN (2,2'-Azobis(2-methylpropionitrile)) were set as parameters for the polymer synthesis process, and Poly(AN-co-MAA) (poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid)) was polymerized by solution polymerization. Poly(AN-co-MAA) with a molecular weight of 305,138 g/mol and an MAA ratio of 4.2% was dissolved in DMF (N,N-dimethylformamide) at a concentration of 16.0 wt%, and then a precursor fiber was prepared through dry-jet-wet spinning. The precursor fiber had a tensile strength of ~1.06 GPa and a tensile modulus of ~22.01 GPa, and no voids and structural defects were observed on the fiber.

• Carbon letters
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2000

The present research was undertaken to evaluate the possibility of water purification filter with activated carbon fibers (ACFs) using a very low cost precursor consisting of phenolic resin coated on glass fibers. The simplified procedure involving coating, curing and activation and a very low cost glass fiber as a raw material were adopted in order to reduce manufacturing cost. The breakthrough curves of the manufactured ACFs and the commercial activated carbon (AC, Calgon F-200) were investigated in the initial concentration range from 19 to 49 ppm for benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene. From breakthrough profiles, the manufactured ACFs had significantly faster adsorption kinetics than the AC. Especially the benzene breakthrough curves, the manufactured ACF (13 g of ACF with 32% of carbon on the glass) was over the limited level (5 ppb) after flowing of 32 l at initial concentration of 15 ppm, while the commercial AC was shown about 3 ppm in initial adsorption.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers are the most widely used precursor of the materials for carbon fibers. The conventional process of carbon fibers from PAN precursor fiber includes two step; stabilization at low temperature and carbonization at high temperature. Compared to thermal stabilization, the stabilization process by electron beam (E-beam) irradiation is a advanced and brief method. However, a stabilization by E-beam irradiation was required a high dose (over 5,000 kGy) and spend over 1.5 hr (1.14 MeV, 1 mA). In the present work the main goal is exploring a quick stabilization process by cotrolling E-beam currents. The effect of various E-beam currents on stabilization of PAN precursor fiber was studied by gel fraction test, thermo gravimertic analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile strength, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images.

• Carbon letters
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• v.19
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• pp.57-65
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• 2016

Isroaniso matrix precursor synthesized from commercially available petroleum pitch was stabilized in air. The influence of oxygen mass gain during stabilization on the yield of matrix precursor was studied. Additionally, the influence of pressure on the yield of the stabilized matrix precursor in a real system was studied. The fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), yield, yield rate, and yield impact were used to check the effect of stabilization and pressure on the yield of the matrix precursor and the end properties of the composite thereafter. The results showed that the yield increased with stabilization duration up to 20 h whereas it decreased for stabilization duration beyond 20 h. Further results showed that the stabilized matrix precursor for a duration of 5 h could withstand almost two-fold greater hot-pressing pressure without resulting in exudation as compared to that of a 1 h stabilized matrix precursor. The enhanced hot-pressing pressure significantly improved the yield of the matrix precursor. As a consequence, the densification and mechanical properties were increased significantly. Further, the matrix precursor stabilized for a duration of 20 h or more failed to provide proper and uniform binding of the reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.56-62
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• 1997

The PAN (Polyacrylonitrile) based carbon fiber-ceramic composites (CFCC) were prepared from mixtures of short carbon fibers, phenolic resin and ceramic binder. The effects of carbonization temperature of a pre-cursor fiber, the stabilized PAN fiber, on the specific surface area and the bending strength of the activated CFCC were studied in this work. The precursor fiber was carbonized at 80$0^{\circ}C$ and 100$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. The CFCC were activated at 85$0^{\circ}C$ in carbon dioxide for 10~90 minutes. As the burn-off of the activated CFCC made of the precursor fiber carbonized at 80$0^{\circ}C$ was increased from 37% to 76%, the specific surface area in-creased from 493m2/g to 1090m2/g, and the bending strength decreased from 4.5MPa to 1.4MPa. These values were about two times larger than those of the activated CFCC of which precursor fiber was car-bonized at 100$0^{\circ}C$. The effects of carbonization temperature of a precursor fiber on the specific surface area and bending strength of the activated CCFC were explained by bonding force between carbon fiber and car-bonized phenolic resin as well as by relative shirnkage between carbon fiber and ceramic film.

• Carbon letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.131-137
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• 2011

Kenaf fibers, cellulose-based natural fibers, were used as precursor for preparing kenafbased carbon fibers. The effects of carbonization temperature ($700^{\circ}C$ to $1100^{\circ}C$) and chemical pre-treatment (NaOH and $NH_4Cl$) at various concentrations on the thermal change, chemical composition and fiber morphology of kenaf-based carbon fibers were investigated. Remarkable weight loss and longitudinal shrinkage were found to occur during the thermal conversion from kenaf precursor to kenaf-based carbon fiber, depending on the carbonization temperature. It was noted that the alkali pre-treatment of kenaf with NaOH played a role in reducing the weight loss and the longitudinal shrinkage and also in increasing the carbon content of kenaf-based carbon fibers. The number and size of the cells and the fiber diameter were reduced with increasing carbonization temperature. Morphological observations implied that the micrometer-sized cells were combined or fused and then re-organized with the neighboring cells during the carbonization process. By the pre-treatment of kenaf with 10 and 15 wt% NaOH solutions and the subsequent carbonization process, the inner cells completely disappeared through the transverse direction of the kenaf fiber, resulting in the fiber densification. It was noticeable that the alkali pre-treatment of the kenaf fibers prior to carbonization contributed to the forming of kenaf-based carbon fibers.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.162-170
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• 2014

Pitch is an attractive raw material for carbon fiber precursors due to its low cost stemming from its availability as a residue of coking and petroleum processes. Ford Motor Company reported a carbon fiber target price of $11.0/kg by using a fast cycle-time manufacturing method with carbon fiber in an inexpensive format, allowing for an average retail price of gasoline of $3.58/gallon. They also recommended the use of carbon fiber with strength of 1700 MPa, modulus of 170 GPa, and 1.5% elongation. This study introduced a ca. $5.5{\mu}m$ carbon fiber with 2000 MPa tensile strength obtained from a precursor through simple distillation of petroleum residue. Petroleum pitch based carbon nanofibers prepared via electrospinning were characterized and potential applications were introduced on the basis of their large specific surface area and relatively high electrical conductivity.