An ultra-high temperature ceramic, tantalum carbide, has received much attention for its favorable characteristics: a superior melting point and chemical compatibility with carbon and other carbides. One drawback is the high temperature erosion of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites. To address this drawback, we deposited TaC on C/C with silicon carbide as an intermediate layer. Prior to the TaC deposition, the TaCl5-C3H6-H2 system was thermodynamically analyzed with FactSage 6.2 and compared with the TaCl5-CH4-H2 system. The results confirmed that the TaCl5-C3H6-H2 system had a more realistic cost and deposition efficiency than TaCl5-CH4-H2. A dense and uniform TaC layer was successfully deposited under conditions of Ta/C = 0.5, 1200 oC and 100 torr. This study verified that the thermodynamic analysis is appropriate as a guide and prerequisite for carbide deposition.

In this present work, the effect of additional heat-treatment (AHT) in the range from 1800℃ to 2400℃ on the chemical composition, morphology, microstructure, tensile properties, electrical resistivity, and thermal stability of commercial polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon fibers was explored by means of elemental analysis, electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, single fiber tensile testing, two-probe electrical resistivity testing, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The characterization results were in agreement with each other. The results clearly demonstrated that AHTs up to 2400℃ played a significant role in further contributing not only to the enhancement of carbon content, fiber morphology, and tensile modulus, but also to the reduction of fiber diameter, inter-graphene layer distance, and electrical resistivity of "as-received" carbon fibers without AHT. The present study suggests that key properties of commercial PAN-based carbon fibers of an intermediate grade can be further improved by proprietarily adding heat-treatment without applying tension in a batch process.

In the present study, fast isothermal stabilization processes for rayon precursor fabrics were performed at 350℃ and 400℃ within 3 minutes and the chemical and physical characteristics of the stabilized fabrics were investigated. In addition, rayon precursor fabrics were pre-treated with three different phosphorous-based flame retardants and then stabilized. The effect of flame retardants on the chemical composition, thermal shrinkage, weight change, thermal stability and XRD results was examined, comparing with those of the precursor fabrics. The result showed that the stabilization of rayon fabrics was most effective as the stabilization temperature was 350℃, the stabilization time was 3 min, and the pre-treatment with phosphoric acid of 1 vol%. The carbon contents of stabilized rayon fabrics were increased with increasing stabilization temperature and time, whereas the oxygen contents were decreased. Also, it is likely that the pre-treatment with phosphoric acid plays a role in retarding the change of chemical structure of rayon fabric. The XRD result was quite consistent with the result showing the effect of phosphoric acid on the chemical composition, thermal shrinkage and weight reduction of rayon fabric.

In this work, we employed an electroless nickel plating on glass fibers in order to enhance the electric conductivity of fibers. And the effects of metal content and plating time on the conductivity of fibers were investigated. From the results, island-like metal clusters were found on the fiber surfaces in initial plating state, and perfect metallic layers were observed after 10 min of plating time. The thickness of metallic layers on fiber surfaces was proportion to plating time, and the electric conductivity showed similar trends. The nickel cluster sizes on fibers decreased with increasing plating time, indicating that surface energetics of the fibers could become more homogeneous and make well-packed metallic layers, resulting in the high conductivity of Ni/glass fibers.

In this study, commercially available pitch-based carbon fibers of general grade were post-heat-treated using a boxtype high temperature furnace at 1800℃, 2000˚, 2200℃, and 2400℃, respectively. The fundamental characteristics of each heat-treated carbon fibers were investigated in terms of chemical composition, morphology, thermal stability, X-ray diffraction, single filament tensile test, and electrical resistivity. The result showed that the fiber properties were significantly influenced by the post-heat-treatment, indicating the greater effect with increasing treatment temperature. The carbon contents, thermal stability, and tensile properties of the carbon fibers used here were further increased by the post-heat-treatment, whereas the d-spacing between graphene layers and the electrical resistivity were reduced with increasing post-heat-treatment temperature.