Controlling the elasticity of polyacrylonitrile fibers via ionic liquids containing cyano-based anions

Zongyu Wang, Huimin Luo, Halie J. Martin, Tao Wang, Yifan Sun, Mark A. Arnould, Bishnu P. Thapaliya, Sheng Dai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

As the predominant precursor for high-performance carbon fiber manufacturing, the fabrication of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based composite fibers attracts great interest. Ionic liquids (ILs) have recently been investigated for melt-spinning of ultrafine PAN fibers. The plasticizing properties of ILs are significantly affected by the structure of ILs and can be influenced by electronegativity, steric effects, etc. Herein, we report a facile strategy to control the elasticity of the PAN/ILs fibers by tuning the anion structure of ILs. Particularly, the ILs containing nitrile-rich groups exhibited enhanced plasticizing effect and nucleating ability on dissolving PAN components, achieving highly stretchable PAN/ILs fibers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8656-8660
Number of pages5
JournalRSC Advances
Volume12
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 18 2022

Funding

The research was sponsored by the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Part of this work was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Division of Scientific User Facilities, U.S. Department of Energy, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. The authors thank Professor David Harper from the Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee, Institute of Agriculture, for providing training on the Instron 5943 universal testing machine. The authors also thank Dr Amit Naskar in Carbon and Composites Group at ORNL for providing us with textile-grade PAN powders. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under contract no. DEAC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

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