Carbon fibers (CF) are predominantly being manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based precursors which require solution spinning utilizing health hazardous organic solvent. This also adds to the cost of production due to the investment for the solvent recovery. Study of melt processable precursors has long been sought as a solution for health and environmental problems associated with the use of hazardous solvent. No use of solvent for spinning will also reduce the cost of manufacturing. Our coworker Deng et al. reported the possibility of using acrylonitrile-co-1-vinylimidazole (AN/VIM) copolymer as melt processable CF precursor. Here we report a successful preparation of carbon fiber from the co-polymer. We successfully demonstrated the preparation of thinner precursor fibers and carbon fibers through our optimization study of melt spinning, annealing, stabilization and carbonization.

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.

In this study, AR (aromatic resin) pitch was employed as the matrix-precursor for carbon/carbon composite because it exhibits much higher coke yield than coal tar pitch. As a result, a fabrication process of carbon/carbon composites can be shortened. It has been known that the pitches may cause swolling problem during the carbonization process. In order to restrain the swelling occurrence, a small quantity of carbon black was added to the AR pitch. Due to addition of carbon black the swelling was decreased largely and the perform can be infiltrated with the AR pitch. The densification efficiency of the performs was compared with various matrix-precursors. The coke yield of matrixprecursors, the morphology and the degree of graphitization of carbon matrix were analyzed.

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.