Effects of stabilization variables on mechanical properties of isotropic pitch based carbon fibers

Optimization of the stabilization process for manufacturing low-cost carbon fibers was performed. By simply varying both heating rate (0.5-10 degrees C/min) and starting temperature (25-230 degrees C), the resulting fibers possessed different properties such as densities, oxygen contents, and weight gains due to the oxygen up-takes. Subsequent oxidative reactions led to changes in chemical compositions of the fibers. Therefore, this study suggests that more concerned design with complementary parameters such as starting temperature and heating rate, significantly reducing stabilization time down to 56.5 min with the comparable mechanical properties of the conventional isotropic pitch based CFs. (C) 2017 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.