Stabilization of commercial polyacrylonitrile fibres for fabrication of low-cost medium-strength carbon fibres

Abstract

The process of fabrication of carbon fibres from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibres is composed of two steps including oxidative stabilization at low temperature and carbonization at high temperature in an inert atmosphere. Due to the high price of the raw material (special PAN fibres), carbon fibres are still expensive. It is shown that it is possible to produce desirable carbon fibres from (cheaper) commercial PAN fibres. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to make some changes in the conventional stabilization procedure to reach complete stabilization.