Properties of Coal-Tar Pitch Based Carbon Fiber with Different Stabilization Conditions

The manufacturing process of pitch-based carbon fiber was divided into spinning, stabilization and carbonization. Among them, the stabilization process requires long time and high cost. In order to determine the optimal stabilization conditions, we calculated the stabilization index (SI), which means the degree of stabilization, and investigated the correlation between SI and physical properties of carbonized fibers with changing the stabilization conditions. With the stabilization times of 0 h and 1 h, the stabilization temperatures were changed from SP+0 degrees C to SP+50 degrees C, and the resulting stabilized and carbonized fibers were characterized. For tensile properties and electrical conductivity, a stabilization temperature of SP+30 degrees C with 0 h duration and a stabilization temperature of SP+10 degrees C with 1 h duration were determined as the optimal stabilization conditions. At these conditions, the oxygen contents of stabilized fibers, which increased according to the degree of stabilization, were around 7.2%.