Study of a melt processable polymer precursor for carbon fiber

Carbon fibers (CF) are predominantly being manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based precursors which require solution spinning utilizing health hazardous organic solvent. This also adds to the cost of production due to the investment for the solvent recovery. Study of melt processable precursors has long been sought as a solution for health and environmental problems associated with the use of hazardous solvent. No use of solvent for spinning will also reduce the cost of manufacturing. Our coworker Deng et al. reported the possibility of using acrylonitrile-co-1-vinylimidazole (AN/VIM) copolymer as melt processable CF precursor. Here we report a successful preparation of carbon fiber from the co-polymer. We successfully demonstrated the preparation of thinner precursor fibers and carbon fibers through our optimization study of melt spinning, annealing, stabilization and carbonization.