The Relationship between Process Technology, Structure Development and Fibre Properties in Modern Carbon Fibre Production

• Main Authors: C. Wilms, G. Seide, T. Gries
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 2013-06-01
• Series: Chemical Engineering Transactions
• Online Access: https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/6663

The carbon fibre production based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is divided into two process steps: solution spinning of the precursor fibre and thermal conversion to the final carbon fibre. It is in the first step, the spinning of the precursor, where most of the properties of the final carbon fibre are determined. A high quality precursor is the key and a prerequisite for a high performance carbon fibre. The mechanical properties are mainly determined by the polymer that is used and by the structure of the fibres. As the polymer is taken here as fixed, the fibre formation process in solution spinning has to be evaluated. In recent years, the conventional wet-spinning technique is gradually replaced by the fast air-gap spinning technique. Therefore, PAN precursor producers have to transform their knowledge about wet-spinning to this new and promising way of fibre production. The evaluation of the structure formation process in precursor production is followed by a practical analysis of the theoretically derived results.