Preparation and characterization of high performance coal tar pitch-based carbon fiber

AbstractHigh performance carbon fiber based on coal tar pitch is a new type of functional material with unique properties, such as light weight, high strength, high modulus, high thermal conductivity, high electrical conductivity and low thermal expansion coefficient. It is a new type of functional material for both military and civilian use. In order to study the preparation of high performance carbon fiber based on coal tar pitch, this article obtained high performance carbon fiber based on coal tar pitch through raw material pretreatment, spinnable asphalt modulation, asphalt melt spinning, non-melting, carbonization, graphitization and other processes, and characterized the performance of spinnable mesocase asphalt and carbon fiber. The results show that high-performance spinnable mesophase pitch can be prepared by three steps raw material refining, hydrogenation modification and thermal polymerization. The mesophase content is 95%, the softening point is 280 °C, and the 3000 m filament can be spun under melt spinning conditions of 375 °C and 0.01 MPa. After graphitization, the coal pitch-based carbon fiber has excellent mechanical properties, small structural defects and a diameter of 12 μm. The tensile strength is 3089 MPa, the elastic modulus is 689 GPa, and the thermal conductivity is 902 w/(m·K).Keywords: High performancecoal tar pitchmesophase pitchcarbon fiberperformance characterization AcknowledgmentsWe thank Wenchao Wang for his contributions to the previous research and subsequent revision of the manuscript in the acknowledgments section.Authors’ contributionsConceptualization, Z.X., Y.N. and K.S.; methodology, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., Z.X., Y.N. and K.S.; software, W.L., H.L., Q.L., J.Y., X.Z. and X.W.; validation, Z.X., Y.N. and K.S.; formal analysis, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., W.L., H.L., K.S. and Y.N.; investigation, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., W.L., H.L., Q.L., J.Y., X.Z. and X.W.; resources, K.S. Z.X. and Y.N.; data curation, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., Z.X., Y.N. and K.S.; writing—original draft preparation, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., Y W.L., H.L., Q.L., J.Y., X.Z. and X.W.; writing—review and editing, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., Z.X., Y.N. and K.S.; visualization, D.Z., C.M., Y.H., Y.N. and K.S.; supervision, K.S., Z.X. and Y.N.; project administration, K.S., Z.X. and Y.N.; funding acquisition, K.S. and Y.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT20ZD206).