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.

Boosting Capacitive Deionization Performance of Commercial Carbon Fibers Cloth via Structural Regulation Based on Catalytic-Etching Effect

Monolithic carbon electrodes with robust mechanical integrity and porous architecture are highly desired for capacitive deionization but remain challenging.Owing to the excellent mechanical strength and electroconductivity,commercial carbon fibers cloth demonstrates great potential as high-performance electrodes for ions storage.Despite this,its direct application on capacitive deionization is rarely reported in terms of limited pore structure and natural hydrophobicity.Herein,a powerful metal-organic framework-engaged structural regulation strategy is developed to boost the desalination properties of carbon fibers.The obtained porous carbon fibers features hierarchical porous structure and hydrophilic surface providing abundant ions-accessible sites,and continuous graphitized carbon core ensuring rapid electrons transport.The catalytic-etching mechanism involving oxidation of Co and subsequent carbonthermal reduction is proposed and highly relies on annealing temperature and holding time.When directly evaluated as a current collector-free capacitive deionization electrode,the porous carbon fibers demonstrates much superior desalination capability than pristine carbon fibers,and remarkable cyclic stability up to 20 h with negligible degeneration.Particularly,the PCF-1000 showcases the highest areal salt adsorption capacity of 0.037 mg cm^(−2) among carbon microfibers.Moreover,monolithic porous carbon fibers-carbon nanotubes with increased active sites and good structural integrity by in-situ growth of carbon nanotubes are further fabricated to enhance the desalination performance(0.051 mg cm^(−2)).This work demonstrates the great potential of carbon fibers in constructing high-efficient and robust monolithic electrode for capacitive deionization.

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.

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 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.

One-pot synthesis of Sb-Fe-carbon-fiber composites with in situ catalytic growth of carbon fibers

A Sb-Fe-carbon-fiber （CF） composite was prepared by a chemical vapor deposition （CVD） method with in situ growth of CFs us- ing Sb203/Fe2O3 as the precursor and acetylene （C2H2） as the carbon source. The Sb-Fe-CF composite was characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, and its electrochemical per- formance was investigated by galvanostatic charge-discharge cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The Sb-Fe-CF composite shows a better cycling stability than the Sb-amorphous-carbon composite prepared by the same CVD method but using Sb2O3 as the precur- sor. Improvements in cycling stability of the Sb-Fe-CF composite can be attributed to the formation of three-dimensional network structure by CFs, which can connect Sb particles firmly. In addition, the CF layer can buffer the volume change effectively.

Effects of Pre-oxidation Conditions on Adsorption Performance of Activated Carbon Fibers

In order to investigate the effects of pre-oxidation conditions on adsorption performance of activated carbon fibers ( ACFs) ,electrospun polyacrylonitrile ( PAN) fiber webs were adopted as precursors for preparing ACFs. Firstly,the webs were stabilized under different pre-oxidation conditions; secondly,the pre-oxidative fibers were chemically activated by high temperature treatment in nitrogen. Pre-oxidation temperature,heating rate,and treatment time are the main factors on affecting the adsorption performance of the ACFs. Scanning electron microscope ( SEM) , differential scanning calorimeter ( DSC ) ,and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy ( FTIR ) were used to characterize the structure and property of the pre-oxidative fibers,and the dynamic benzene adsorption capacity of benzene of ACFs was measured. The results indicate that the moderate pre-oxidation condition is necessary to prepare the ACFs with better adsorption capacity,and the optimal oxidation conditions are to increase from room temperature to 230 ℃ with a heating rate of 0. 75 ℃·min - 1 ,held at the peak temperature for 30 min.

DSC Study on the Polyacrylonitrile Precursors for Carbon Fibers

Different polyacrylonitrile （PAN） precursor fibers that displayed various thermal properties were studied by using differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）. Results showed that some commercial PAN precursor fibers displayed double separated peaks and these fibers were of high quality because of their process stability during their conversion to carbon fibers of high performance. Some fabrication processes, such as spinning, drawing, could not apparently change the DSC features of a PAN precursor fiber. It was concluded that the thermal properties of a PAN precursor fiber was mainly determined from its comonomer content type and compositions.

Comparative Study on Preparing Carbon Fibers Based on PAN Precursors with Different Comonomers

Two different PAN precursors with various comonomers were wet-spun. The properties and structurul changes of PAN precursors and their evolution during preoxidation and carbonization process were characterized by the use of DSC , FTIR and traditional parameters, e g, tensile strength. It is demonstrated that acrylamide（ AAM ） is very effective to make the DSC peak be separated compared to methyl acrylate （ MA ）. As a result, carbon fibers developed from AAM-contained precursors have a better tenacity compared to those developed from MAcontained ones.

S-doped porous carbon fibers with superior electrode behaviors in lithium ion batteries and fuel cells

The orientation construction of S-doped porous carbon fibers(SPCFs)is realized by the facile template-directed methodology using asphalt powder as carbon source.The unique fiber-like morphology without destruction can be well duplicated from the template by the developed methodology.MgSO4 fibers serve as both templates and S dopant,realizing the in-situ S doping into carbon frameworks.The effects of different reaction temperatures on the yield and S doping level of SPCFs are investigated.The S doping can not only significantly enhance the electrical conductivity,but also introduce more defects or disorders.As anode material for lithium ion batteries(LIBs),SPCFs electrode delivers better rate capability than undoped PCFs.And the capacity of SPCFs electrode retains around 90%after 300 cycles at 2 A g1,exhibiting good cycling stability.As the electrocatalysts for fuel cells,the onset potentials of SPCFs obtained at 800 and 900C are concentrated at 0.863 V,and the higher kinetic current densities at 0.4 V of them are larger than that of PCFs,demonstrating the superior electrocatalytic performance.Due to the synergistic effect of abundant pore channels and S doping,SPCFs electrode exhibits superior electrochemical performances as anode for LIBs and elecctrocatalyst for fuel cells,respectively.Additionally,the oriented conversion of asphalt powder into high-performance electrode material in this work provides a new way for the high value application of asphalt.

Fabrication of solid-phase-sintered Si C-based composites with short carbon fibers

Solid-phase-sintered Si C-based composites with short carbon fibers（Csf/SSi C） in concentrations ranging from 0 to 10wt% were prepared by pressureless sintering at 2100°C. The phase composition, microstructure, density, and flexural strength of the composites with different Csf contents were investigated. SEM micrographs showed that the Csf distributed in the SSi C matrix homogeneously with some gaps at the fiber/matrix interfaces. The densities of the composites decreased with increasing Csf content. However, the bending strength first increased and then decreased with increasing Csf content, reaching a maximum value of 390 MPa at a Csf content of 5wt%, which was 60 MPa higher than that of SSi C because of the pull-out strengthening mechanism. Notably, Csf was graphitized and damaged during the sintering process because of the high temperature and reaction with boron derived from the sintering additive B4C; this graphitization degraded the fiber strengthening effect.

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.

Potential-aided recovery of iodide using 2-D nanosheet CuxO coating polymer/graphene/carbon fibers composite

2-D nanosheet Cu2O doped CuO coating poly m-phenylenediamine and melamine/graphene/carbon fibers composite(CuxO/MPM/GFs)was firstly fabricated by compound electrochemical method.CuxO/MPM/GFs was successfully used to the recovery of iodide(I-)from salt water by lower potential-aided sorption and desorption processes.The potential-aided recovery of I-at CuxO/MPM/GFs was characterized by FE-SEM,XRD,IR,Raman,XPS,UV-vis and electrochemical techniques in detail.The maximal adsorption capacity of 86.82 mg·g^-1 could be obtained with a pseudo-second-order model at 0.8 V for 210 min in pH 5.0,0.1 mol·L^-1 NaCl,and the process accompanied the generation of CuI,CuO and I5-.The I-could be quickly desorbed from the electrode with a transfer of CuI to Cu2O by cycle voltammetry from-1.0 to 0.5 V for 90 cycles in pH 9.0,0.1 mol·L^-1 KNO3.Thus,CuxO/MPM/GFs was renewable in the continuous electrochemical-adsorption-desorption processes.

Effects of electrochemical oxidation on surface and mechanical properties of dry-jet wet spun carbon fibers

The surface of dry-jet wet spun carbon fibers(CFs)is relatively smooth compared with those of wet spun CFs,which results in weak interfacial interactions between the fiber and the polymer resin.A surface functionalization treatment is particularly important to unleash the full potential of the superior mechanical properties of dry-jet wet spun CFs.In this study,the effects of electrochemical oxidation treatment time and current density on the surface structures and the mechanical properties of dry-jet wet spun CFs were investigated.The interlaminar shear strength of the CFs improves significantly from 69 to 84 MPa after 120 s of treatment.Further structural analysis reveals that the improvements are due to the addition of oxygen-containing functional groups and the optimization of the morphology on the surface of the CFs.

Study on Microwave Dielectric Property of Carbon Black and Short Carbon Fibers

Carbon black and carbon fibers of different lengths were introduced in different matrices at different ratios to explore their microwave dielectric properties under 8.2 GHz-12.4 GHz. It is found that the actual dielectric constants of the samples containing carbon black are in a two-order function of the contents of carbon black （ε＇, ε＂=Av2＋Bv＋C） and the complex dielectric constants show an obvious frequency response. Of the added fibers of different lengths, the 4 mm-long one could well disperse in the matrices having not only good frequency response, but also larger real parts, imaginary parts and loss values. The imaginary parts and the loss values （tanδ）of the samples with 4 mm-long carbon fibers added increase linearly with the contents of fiber increasing. So it is practicable to adjust the dielectric parameters of the material in a wide range by changing the added amount of carbon black, and the carbon fiber or altering the lengths of the carbon fiber added.

A host-guest approach to fabricate metallic cobalt nanoparticles embedded in silk-derived N-doped carbon fibers for efficient hydrogen evolution

Hydrogen evolution reaction(HER) plays a key role in generating clean and renewable energy. As the most effective HER electrocatalysts, Pt group catalysts suffer from severe problems such as high price and scarcity. It is highly desirable to design and synthesize sustainable HER electrocatalysts to replace the Pt group catalysts. Due to their low cost, high abundance and high activities, cobalt-incorporated N-doped nanocarbon hybrids are promising candidate electrocatalysts for HER. In this report, we demonstrated a robust and eco-friendly host-guest approach to fabricate metallic cobalt nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon fibers derived from natural silk fibers. Benefiting from the onedimensional nanostructure, the well-dispersed metallic cobalt nanoparticles and the N-doped thin graphitized carbon layer coating, the best Cobased electrocatalyst manifests low overpotential(61 mV@10 mA/cm^2) HER activity that is comparable with commercial 20% Pt/C, and good stability in acid. Our findings provide a novel and unique route to explore high-performance noble-metal-free HER electrocatalysts.

Methane Decomposition into Carbon Fibers over Coprecipitated Nickel-Based Catalysts

Decomposition of methane in the presence of coprecipitated nickel-basedcatalysts to produce carbon fibers was investigated. The reaction was studied in the temperaturerange of 773 K to 1073 K. At 1023 K, the catalytic activities of three catalysts kept high at theinitial period and then decreased with the reaction time. The lifetimes of Ni-Cu-Al and Ni-La-Alcatalysts are longer than that of Ni-Al catalyst. With three catalysts, the yield of carbon fiberswas very low at 773 K. The yield of carbon fibers for Ni-La-Al catalyst was more than those forNi-Al and Ni-Cu-Al catalysts. For Ni-La-Al catalyst, the elevation of temperature from 873 K up to1073 K led gradually to an increase in the yield of carbon fibers. XRD studies on the Ni-La-Alcatalyst indicate that La_2NiO_4 was formed. The formation of La_2NiO_4 is responsible for theincrease in the catalytic lifetime and the yield of carbon fibers synthesized on Ni-La-Al at773-1073 K. Carbon fibers synthesized on Ni-Al catalyst are thin, long carbon nanotubes. There arebamboo-shaped carbon fibers synthesized on Ni-Cu-Al catalyst. Carbon fibers synthesized on Ni-La-Alcatalyst have large hollow core, thin wall and good graphitization.

Pyrolytic Recycling of Carbon Fibers from Prepregs and Their Use in Polyamide Composites

Carbon fibers composites are well-known as high tech materials but are also recognized as a problem after use as they have to be deposited in landfills. Pyrolysis is an attractive process for recycling carbon fibers from used composites as well as offcuts from prepregs. Pyrolysis of carbon fiber composite prepregs is carried out in a pilot plant with a single screw reactor. The pyrolysis products, carbon fibers and pyrolysis vapor are fully characterized. Variation of pyrolysis temperature is carried out to obtain carbon fibers with the best possible surface properties. In order to compare the mechanical properties of the recycled carbon fibers with virgin material, composite materials with polyamide are produced and their properties compared.