Catalytic graphitization of PAN-based carbon fibers with electrodeposited Ni-Fe alloy

Ni-Fe alloy was electrodeposited on the surface of polyacrylonitrile （PAN）-based carbon fibers, and catalytic graphitization effect of the heat-treated carbon fibers was investigated by X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectra. It is found that Ni-Fe alloy exhibits significant catalytic effect on the graphitization of the carbon fibers at low temperatures. The degree of graphitization of the carbon fibers coated with Ni-Fe alloy （57.91% Fe, mass fraction） reaches 69.0% through heat treatment at 1 250 °C. However, the degree of graphitization of the carbon fibers without Ni-Fe alloy is only 30.1% after being heat-treated at 2 800 °C. The catalytic effect of Ni-Fe alloy on graphitization of carbon fibers is better than that of Ni or Fe at the same temperature, indicating that Ni and Fe elements have synergic catalytic function. Furthermore, Fe content in the Ni-Fe alloy also influences catalytic effect. The catalytic graphitization of Ni-Fe alloy follows the dissolution-precipitation mechanism.

Deformation Resistance Effect of PAN-based Carbon Fibers

The deformation resistance effect of polyacrylonitrile （PAN）-based carbon fibers was investigated, and the variatipn law of electrical resistivity under tensile stress was analyzed. The results show that the gauge factor （fractional change in resistance per unit strain） of PAN-based carbon fibers is 1.38, which is lower than that of the commonly-used resistance strain gauge. These may due to that the electrical resistivity of carbon fibers decreases under tensile stress. In addition when the carbon fibers are stretched, the change of its resistance is caused by fiber physical dimension and the change of electric resistivity, and mainly caused by the change of physical dimension. The mechanical properties of carbon fiber monofilament were also measured.

Effect of Electrochemical Treatment in Aqueous Ammonium Bicarbonate on Surface Properties of PAN-based Carbon Fibers

The surface properties of PAN-based carbon fibers electrochemically treated in aqueous ammonium bicarbonate before and after treatment were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Dynamic Contact Angle Analysis (DCAA). The results of characterization indicated that the oxygen and nitrogen contents in carbon fiber surface were significantly increased by electrochemical treatment, and amide groups was introduced onto it, which was related with the electrolyte. The AFM photographs illustrated that the roughness of the fiber surface was also increased. The wettibality of the fibers was improved after treatment because the surface energy especially the polar part of it was increased.

Hyphae-mediated bioassembly of carbon fibers derivatives for advanced battery energy storage

Ingenious design and fabrication of advanced carbon-based sulfur cathodes are extremely important to the development of high-energy lithium-sulfur batteries,which hold promise as the next-generation power source.Herein,for the first time,we report a novel versatile hyphae-mediated biological assembly technology to achieve scale production of hyphae carbon fibers(HCFs)derivatives,in which different components including carbon,metal compounds,and semiconductors can be homogeneously assembled with HCFs to form composite networks.The mechanism of biological adsorption assembly is also proposed.As a representative,reduced graphene oxides(rGOs)decorated with hollow carbon spheres(HCSs)successfully co-assemble with HCFs to form HCSs@rGOs/HCFs hosts for sulfur cathodes.In this unique architecture,not only large accommodation space for sulfur but also restrained volume expansion and fast charge transport paths are realized.Meanwhile,multiscale physical barriers plus chemisorption sites are simultaneously established to anchor soluble lithium polysulfides.Accordingly,the designed HCSs@rGOs/HCFs-S cathodes deliver a high capacity(1189 mA h g^(-1)at 0.1 C)and good high-rate capability(686 mA h g^(-1)at 5 C).Our work provides a new approach for the preparation of high-performance carbon-based electrodes for energy storage devices.

Pitch-derived soft carbon composite with hard carbon fibers for high-rate and long-cycling K^(+) storage

Potassium-ion batteries(KIBs)have been seen as a competitive alternative to lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)due to their natural abundance,low cost and rocking chair-like operating mechanism similar to LIBs.Soft carbon has a lower voltage plateau compared to hard carbon and an easily modulated lattice structure compared to graphite,which provides particular advantages in KIBs anodes.Pitch has attracted much attention as a simple,readily available and inexpensive precursor for soft carbon,but its structure is easily damaged during cycling.Herein,the flexible film Pitch@CNF are prepared by uniformly winding reticulated carbon fibers on the surface of pitch-soft carbon via electrostatic spinning technique,which not only enables the pitch to maintain its structure well during cycling and withstand the volume expansion upon K^(+) insertion,but also is conducive to ionic transport of the three-dimensional reticulated structure.Meanwhile,the abundant pores on the carbon fibers can provide more K^(+) active sites.The prepared flexible self-supporting films can be used directly as electrodes without the addition of binders and conductive agents.The reversible capacity is 290 mAh·g^(-1)at a current density of 0.1 A·g^(-1),and the capacity retention rate is 83%after 500 cycles.

Carbon Fiber Breakage Mechanism in Aluminum(Al)/Carbon Fibers(CFs) Composite Sheet during Accumulative Roll Bonding(ARB) Process

We put forward a method of fabricating Aluminum(Al)/carbon fibers(CFs) composite sheets by the accumulative roll bonding(ARB) method. The finished Al/CFs composite sheet has CFs and pure Al sheets as sandwich and surface layers. After cross-section observation of the Al/CFs composite sheet, we found that the CFs discretely distributed within the sandwich layer. Besides, the tensile test showed that the contribution of the sandwich CFs layer to tensile strength was less than 11% compared with annealed pure Al sheet. With ex-situ observation of the CFs breakage evolution with-16%,-32%, and-45% rolling reduction during the ARB process, the plastic instability of the Al layer was found to bring shear damages to the CFs. At last, the bridging strengthening mechanism introduced by CFs was sacrificed. We provide new insight into and instruction on Al/CFs composite sheet preparation method and processing parameters.

Effects of Atmospheric DBD Plasma Treatment on the Surface Properties of PAN-Based Carbon Fiber

Plasma treatment has been known as an effective way to improve the surface bonding between the reinforcement material and the matrix, by modifying the surface morphology and the chemical composes of the material. In order to investigate the effects of atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment on the surface properties of polyacrylonitrile-based (PAN-based) carbon fiber, atomic force microscope(AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), and contact angle test were introduced to compare different treatment duration. The interfacial adhesion of carbon fiber/epoxy (CF/EP) composites were analyzed by a single fiber composite (SFC) for filament fragmentation test. And the tensile strength test and Weibull analysis were carried out to observe whether the etching could affect the strength. The results prove that the DBD plasma improves the surface properties of the carbon fiber. Further, when the treatment time was around 90 s, the roughness and oxygen containing group of the carbon fiber reached the peak values. Also, the fiber showed the best adhesion to the polymer in contact angle test and the optimum interfacial shear strength (IFSS) in fragmentation test. The Weibull analyses of the tensile data revealed no substantial changes in the tensile strength within the treatment time of 180 s.

THE CONVERSION OF PAN-BASED STABILIZED FIBER TO CARBON FIBER

When the PAN-based stabilized fiber(PAN-SF) was converted to the carbon fiber, the effect of some of the carbonizing parameters on the structure and properties of the resulting carbon fibers, such as the molecular structure development, element contents, morphology and mechanical properties, was discussed. The results show that the carbonizing temperature, the purity of the inert gas and the de-oil pretreatment of the tiber have a great influence on them.

Vapor-grown carbon fibers enhanced sulfur-multi walled carbon nanotubes composite cathode for lithium/sulfur batteries

Vapor-grown carbon fibers （VGCFs） were introduced as conductive additives for sulfur-multiwalled carbon nanotubes （S-MWCNTs） composite cathode of lithium-sulfur batteries. The performance of S-MWCNTs composite cathodes with carbon black and VGCFs as sole conductive additives was investigated using scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, galvanostatic charge-discharge tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）. The results show that the S-MWCNTs composite cathode with VGCFs displays a network-like morphology and exhibits higher activity and better cycle durability compared with the composite cathode with carbon black, delivering an initial discharge capacity of 1254 mA＆#183;h/g and a capacity of 716 mA＆#183;h/g after 40 cycles at 335 mA/g. The interconnected VGCFs can provide a stable conductive network, suppress the aggregation of cathode materials and residual lithium sulfide and maintain the porosity of cathode, and therefore the electrochemical performance of S-MWCNTs composite cathode is enhanced.

Effect of Rare Earths on Tribological Properties of Carbon Fibers Reinforced PTFE Composites

Carbon fibers （CF） were surface treated with air-oxidation and rare earths （RE）, respectively. The effect of RE surface treatment on tensile strength and tribological properties of CF reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene （PTFE） composites was invest/gated. Experimental results revealed that RE was superior to air ox/dation in improving the tensile strength, elongation, and the tensile modulus of CF reinforced PTFE （CF/PTFE） composite. Compared to the untreated and air-oxidated CF/PTFE composite, the RE treated composite had the lowest friction coefficient and specific wear rate under a given applied load and reciprocating sliding frequency. The RE treatment effectively improved the interfacial adhesion between CF and PTFE. With strong interfacial coupling, the carbon fibers carried most of the load, and direct contact and adhesion between PTFE and the counterpart were reduced, accordingly the friction and wear properties of the composite were improved.

Electromagnetism and Absorptivity of the Modified Micro-coiled Chiral Carbon Fibers

Micro-coiled chiral carbon fibers are modified by nano-Ni. X-ray diffraction （XRD） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM） are used to compare the composition and morphology of the unmodified and the modified fibers. The results show that electromagnetism parameters of the modified are different from those of the unmodified. After modification by nano-Ni, the micro-coiled chiral carbon fibers have decreased permittivity and electrical loss. The permeability and magnetic loss of the modified carbon fibers become larger than those of the unmodified ones. Moreover, the modification of unmodified chiral carbon fibers into the modified is much like changing hollow electric windings into those with magnetic cores inside. The modifier intensifies the cross polarization of the chiral carbon fibers and makes the permittivity and the permeability get closer to each other which improves the matching performance and enhances absorbability of coatings. In the range of 6-18 GHz, the reflectivity of the coating is 6-8dB and the bandwidth is 12 GHz. The area density of the coating is below 3 kg/m^2.

Self-monitoring Application of Asphalt Concrete Containing Graphite and Carbon Fibers

The self-monitoring application of asphalt concrete containing graphite and carbon fibers using indirect tensile test and wheel rolling test were introduced. The experiment results indicate that this kind of pitch-based composite is effective for strain/stress self-monitoring. In the indirect tensile test, for a completely conductive asphalt concrete specimen, the piezoresistivity was very weak and slightly positive, which meant the resistivity increase with the increment of tensile strain at all stress/strain amplitudes, with the gage factor as high as 6. The strain self-sensing ability was superior in the case of higher graphite content. However, when the conductive concrete was embedded into common asphalt concrete specimen as a partial structure function, the piezoresistivity was positive at all stress/strain amplitudes and with the gage factor of 13, which was much higher than that of completely conductive specimen. Thus, the strain self-sensing ability was superior when conductive asphalt concrete was taken in as a partial structure function. In the wheel-rolling test, the piezoresistivity was highly positive. At any stress amplitude, the piezoresistivity was strong, with the gage factor as high as 100, which was higher for a stress amplitude of 0.7 MPa than that of 0.5 MPa.

Activated carbon fibers with manganese dioxide coating for flexible fiber supercapacitors with high capacitive performance

Fiber supercapacitor(FSC)is a promising power source for wearable/stretchable electronics and high capacitive performance of FSCs is highly desirable for practice flexible applications.Here,we report a composite of manganese dioxide(Mn O_2)and activated carbon fibers(ACFs)with high MnO_2mass loading and microporous structure(abbreviated as Mn O_2@ACF),which is used as a fiber electrode to produce a FSC with a high capacitive performance and a good flexibility.The MnO_2@ACF composite electrode in FSCs delivers an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 410 mF/cm^2at 0.1 mA/cm^2,corresponding to a high energy density of 36μWh/cm^2and high power density of 726μW/cm^2.Such high capacitive performance and simple fabrication method indicates that the Mn O_2@ACF composite is a very promising electrode material for flexible fiber supercapacitors.

Comparison of Structure and Properties among Various PAN Fibers for Carbon Fibers

To find out the high-quality polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers, some differences are sought by comparing domestic PAN fibers with the foreign ones. X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, elemental analyzer, tensile-testing machine and high-temperature differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) are used to characterize the individual microstructure, chemical structure, elemental content, mechanical properties and thermal properties. It is found that high-quality PAN fibers have high density, lower titre, higher or adequate tensile strength, and they also have better conglomeration structure, smaller crystal dimension with dispersive distribution, less microvoids and flaws.

In-situ growth of vertically aligned nickel cobalt sulfide nanowires on carbon nanotube fibers for high capacitance all-solid-state asymmetric fiber-supercapacitors

Fiber-supercapacitors(FSCs)are promising power sources for miniature portable and wearable electronic devices.However,the development and practical application of these FSCs have been severely hindered by their low volumetric capacitance and narrow operating voltage.In this work,vertically aligned nickel cobalt sulfide(Ni Co2S4)nanowires grown on carbon nanotube(CNT)fibers were achieved through an in-situ two-step hydrothermal reaction method.The as-prepared Ni Co2S4@CNT fiber electrode exhibits a high volumetric capacitance of 2332 F cm-3,benefiting from its superior electric conductivity,large surface area,and rich Faradic redox reaction sites.Furthermore,a Ni Co2S4@CNT//VN@CNT(vanadium nitride nanosheets grown on CNT fibers)asymmetric fiber-supercapacitor(AFSC)was successfully fabricated.The device exhibits an operating voltage up to 1.6 V and a high volumetric energy density of 30.64m Wh cm-3.The device also possesses outstanding flexibility as evidenced by no obvious performance degradation under various bending angles and maintaining high capacitance after 5000 bending cycles.This work promotes the practical application of flexible wearable energy-storage devices.

A Mini Review on Nanocarbon-Based 1D Macroscopic Fibers:Assembly Strategies and Mechanical Properties

Nanocarbon-based materials, such as carbon nanotubes(CNTs) and graphene have been attached much attention by scientific and industrial community. As two representative nanocarbon materials, one-dimensional CNTs and twodimensional graphene both possess remarkable mechanical properties. In the past years, a large amount of work have been done by using CNTs or graphene as building blocks for constructing novel, macroscopic, mechanically strong fibrous materials. In this review, we summarize the assembly approaches of CNT-based fibers and graphene-based fibers in chronological order, respectively. The mechanical performances of these fibrous materials are compared, and the critical influences on the mechanical properties are discussed. Personal perspectives on the fabrication methods of CNT-and graphene-based fibers are further presented.

Effect of Post-spinning Modification on the PAN Precursors and Resulting Carbon Fibers

The impregnation of a special grade PAN precursor,fibers wus carried out in a 8 wt% KMnO4 aqueous solution to obtain modified PAN precursor fibers. The effects of modification on the chemical stncture and the mechanical properties of precursor fibers thermally stabilized and their resulting carbon fibers u＇ere characterized by the combiination use of densities, wide-angle X-ray diffraction （WAXD）, X-ray photoelectron speetroscopy （XPS）, elemental analysis （ EA ）, Fourier traasform infrared spectroscopy （FT-IR） and scanning electron microscope （SEM）, etc.KMnO4 as a strong oxidizer can swell, oxidize and corrode the skin of a precursor.fiber, and transform C≡N groups to C≡N ones, meamchile , it can decreuse the crystal .size increuse the orientation index and the costallinity index, furthermore it can increuse the densities of modified PAN precursors and resuhing thermally stabilized fibers. As a result, the carbon fibers developed from modified PAN fibers show an improvement in tensile strength of 31.25 % and an improvement in elongation of 77.78 % , but a decrease of 16. 52% in Young＇s modulus.

Performance of Polyaniline-coated Short Carbon Fibers in Electromagnetic Shielding Coating

Combined nitric acid oxidation method and polyaniline （PANI）-coated method were applied to modify the surface properties of short carbon fibers （SCF）. The electrical and mechanical properties of acrylic coatings with 50 wt pct PANI-coated carbon fiber were investigated by using scanning electron microscope （SEM）, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, four-probe method and the coaxial cable method. The results of the pH measurement and XPS （X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy） patterns showed that the oxygen functional groups, such as -OH and -COOH, were attached on the carbon fiber surfaces after oxidation treatment. The XPS analysis of PANl-coated oxidized SCF （PAOSCF） revealed that PANI may bond on the surface of oxidized SCF with chemical bonds. SEM images and surface roughness analyses showed that PANl-coated layer changed the surface morphology. Compared with SCF/acrylic coating, the surface resistivity of PAOSCF/acrylic coating decreased from17.1 to 5.3 Ω/sq and the shielding efficiency （SE） value increased from 1.54 to 23.3 dB.

Plasma Modification of Activated Carbon Fibers for Adsorption of SO_2

Viscose-based activated carbon fibers （VACFs） were treated by a dielectric-barrier discharge plasma under the feed gas of N2. The surface functional groups of VACFs were modified to improve the adsorption and catalysis capacity for SO2. The surface properties of the untreated and plasma-treated VACFs were diagnosed by SEM, BET, FTIR, and XPS, and the adsorption capacities of VACFs for SO2 were also compared and discussed. The results show that after the plasma treatment, the external surface of VACFs was etched and became rougher, while the surface area and the total pore volume decreased. FTIR and XPS revealed that nitrogen atoms were introduced onto the VACFs surface and the distribution of functional groups on the VACFs surface was changed remarkably. The adsorption characteristic of SO2 indicates that the plasmatreated VACFs have better adsorption capacity than the original VACFs due to the nitrogen functional groups and new functional groups formed in modification, which is beneficial to the adsorption of SO2.

Effect of Co-polyester antistatic agent modified by carbon nanotubes on the properties of polypropylene fibers

Antistatic polymer fibers were investigated by using carbon nanotubes （CNTs） to enhance the antistatic ability of inner antistatic agents based on the mechanism of attracting moisture by polar radical groups. It is indicated that the antistatic ability of the fibers filled with composite antistatic agents that contain CNTs and organic antistatic agents was superior to that of the fibers filled either with pure organic antistatic agents or pure CNTs. The antistatic ability of the composite antistatic agent fabricated by an in situ process was superior to that of the composite antistatic agent fabricated by direct dispersing CNTs in the antistatic agent carrier. Moreover, the heat-treated CNTs could further enhance the antistatic effect compared with the initial CNTs. The antistatic effect is significantly influenced by the content of CNTs in the composite antistatic agent.