Abstract
Carbon fibers made of textile and aerospace grade polyacrylonitrile precursor fibers were surface treated by a continuous gas phase thermochemical treatment. The surface chemistry generated by the surface treatment was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The surface and the average entire microstructure of the fibers were characterized by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. Depending on the grade of the precursor, the final surface concentration of oxygen was comprised between 14% and 24%, whereas the typical commercial electrochemical surface treatments led to concentrations of around 8% with the same fibers. The final concentration of oxygen was directly correlated to the size of the crystallites which was a function of the grade of the polyacrylonitrile precursor and to the corresponding surface microstructure. The thermochemical surface treatment enabled a better control of the nature of the oxygen-containing functionalities as well. Whatever the grade of the precursor, desired hydroxyl groups and carboxylic acid functionalities were preferably generated, which is observed to be difficult with electrochemical surface treatments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 473-480 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Applied Surface Science |
| Volume | 261 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 15 2012 |
Funding
This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies , as part of the Lightweighting Materials Program. A part of this research was done through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program and through the Shared Research Equipment (SHaRE) User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Authors would like to thank Dr. Tomonori Saito for his valuable discussions and comments. Authors would like to thank Mr. Truman Bond and ReMaxCo Technologies LLC for their indispensible contribution to the development of the surface treatment technology. Zoltek and Hexcel are sincerely thanked for providing carbon fibers.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Vehicle Technologies Office |
Keywords
- Carbon fiber
- Interface adhesion
- Surface chemistry
- Surface functionalization