Preparation, Stabilization and Carbonization of a Novel Polyacrylonitrile-Based Carbon Fiber Precursor

Abstract

The quality of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor has a great influence on the properties of the resultant carbon fibers. In this paper, a novel comonomer containing the sulfonic group, 2-acrtlamido-2-methylpropane acid (AMPS), was introduced to prepare P(AN-co-AMPS) copolymers using itaconic acid (IA) as the control. The nanofibers of PAN, P(AN-co-IA), and P(AN-co-AMPS) were prepared using the electrospinning method. The effect of AMPS comonomer on the carbon nanofibers was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Raman spectrum. The structural evolutions of PAN-based nanofibers were quantitatively tracked by FTIR and XRD during the thermal oxidative stabilization (TOS) process. The results suggested that P(AN-co-AMPS) nanofibers had the lower heat release rate (ΔH/ΔT = 26.9 J g−1 °C−1), the less activation energy of cyclization (Ea1 = 26.6 kcal/mol and Ea2 = 27.5 kcal/mol), and the higher extent of stabilization (Es and SI) during TOS process, which demonstrated that the AMPS comonomer improved the efficiency of the TOS process. The P(AN-co-AMPS) nanofibers had the better thermal stable structures. Moreover, the carbon nanofibers derived from P(AN-co-AMPS) precursor nanofibers had the better graphite-like structures (XG = 46.889). Therefore, the AMPS is a promising candidate comonomer to produce high performance carbon fibers.

Core-Shell Nanofibers of Polyvinylidene Fluoride-based Nanocomposites as Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

“…While the melting temperatures first decreases as the rate enhanced from 5 to 20 °C/min with the values of 176.74 °C at 5 °C/min, 175.45 °C at 10 °C/min, 172.46 °C at 20 °C/min, an increase was also observed at 30 °C/min (174.85 °C). In all cases, the peak width is comparatively increasing, as there is a time lag between the sample and the reference in achieving the thermal equilibrium [ 42 , 43 ]. This variations in crystallization and melting temperatures with rate of cooling/heating has strong effect on the phase transition and crystallization kinetics.…”

“…The onset of degradation is lower for composites containing TiO 2 nanomaterials, but for the ZnO containing nanocomposite fibers, the degradation value is higher. The final weight residue increased with the filler reinforcement, which indicates the improved cyclization of the polymer, enhancing the heat resistant molecular structures and favoring carbonization [ 42 ].…”

A Review of Functional Separators for Lithium Metal Battery Applications

“…Copyright (2008) Elsevier B.V. ( e ) PMMA particles Reprinted with permission from [ 58 ] Copyright (2018) CC BY. ( f ) PAN nanofibers Reprinted with permission from [ 59 ] Copyright (2019) CC BY.…”

Thermal Analysis and Crystal Structure of Poly(Acrylonitrile-Co-Itaconic Acid) Copolymers Synthesized in Water

“…Thus, many researchers studied the effects of IA on the thermal stabilization of PAN copolymers, which showed that the introduction of IA comonomer promoted cyclization reactions and broadened the range of exothermic temperature, and PAN-IA copolymers had lower activation energy of cyclization reaction during this processing [29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Because the thermal stabilization depends on the nature and the content of comonomer as well as the polymerization methods of PAN-IA copolymers [9,11,19,30,32,[35][36][37][38]. In the previous literature, the water soluble initiators were adopted, such as ammonium persulfate [9,30], potassium persulfate [9,21], or the mixture of sodium bisulfite and potassium persulfate [11].…”