Effects of KBrO 3 on Chemical, Aggregation and Morphological Structure of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Precursor Fibers

The effects of KBrO 3 modification on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor fibers at different modification temperatures were studied. The mechanical properties, chemical structure, aggregation structure, morphological structure, and thermal behavior of PAN precursor fibers were analyzed. The mechanical properties of PAN precursor fibers are essentially unaltered after KBrO 3 modification, although oxygen-containing functional groups are introduced. KBrO 3 can ionize bromate ion in aqueous solution, which has good nucleophilicity and can attack the positively charged carbon atom in C≡N, so that the cyclization proceeds according to the ionic mechanism, allowing the transformation of C≡N to C = N in the PAN precursor fibers generated a cyclic trapezoidal structure containing primary aromatic amine, which reduced the peak temperature of the cyclization reaction from 284.5 °C to 275.1 °C and decreased the heat release. The sp3-hybridized carbon structure changes into a sp2 hybridized C = C structure with increasing aromatization, according to XRD and Raman data, and the KBrO 3 alteration accelerates the degradation of the original microcrystalline structure and transforms into a new polycyclic aromatic structure. The degree of conjugation and aromatization of the system rapidly increased with the rise in modification temperature. The stabilized fibers were discovered to have the lowest R-value, the highest aromatization, the smoothest surface, and the fewest flaws at impregnation temperature of 60 °C.