美国高性能碳纤维技术发展史研究

The Review of US Research History for High Performance Carbon Fiber

较全面地综述了美国科学家在高性能碳纤维技术发展初期所做的科学技术贡献。碳纤维发明于美国,最早被用作白炽灯的发光体,目前其高端应用主要是航空航天器的结构材料。在将碳纤维应用从灯泡拓展到航空航天器的过程中,原美国联合碳化物公司帕尔马技术中心(Union Carbide Corp.'s Parma Technical Center)的两位科学家在高性能碳纤维技术基础研究方面发挥了奠基作用。该中心罗格·贝肯(Roger Bacon)1958年发现了"石墨晶须(graphite whiskers)"超高强度现象,并于1964年发明了制备高模量碳纤维的"热拉伸(hot-stretching)"高温处理技术;伦纳德·辛格(Leonard Singer)1970年发明了中间相沥青基石墨纤维制备工艺技术。可以说,这三项发现发明开创了碳纤维高性能化发展的科学技术基础。

In this article, the contributions of US scientists to the technological advance of high performance carbon fiber at its early stage are reviewed. Carbon fiber was innovated in United States, which was firstly used as the illuminator of light bulbs, but at present, it is used in many advanced applied fields like rackets,satellites and aircrafts, etc. On the long way to push the application of carbon fiber＂from light bulbs to outer Space＂, with which carbon fiber has been becoming high performance ones, two scientists of the Parma Technical Center of former Union Carbide Corp. played key roles. Physicist Roger Bacon discovered＂graphite whiskers＂ and found its special performance in 1958, also in 1964 he developed the＂hot-stretching＂ technology for producing high-modulus carbon fiber. In 1970, scientist Leonard S. Singer developed the technology of producing graphitized mesophase pitch fibers. The three technologies above derived from the scientists of Parma Technical Center founded the scientific and technical basis of high performance carbon fiber.