Development of pitch-based carbon fibers: a review

ABSTRACT

Carbon fibers with high performance are critically important materials for various industries, especially pitch-based carbon fibers including isotropic pitch-based and mesophase pitch-based are applied widely in the fields of aerospace, defense, sports, electronics, environmental protection, etc. Therefore, their development and fabrication have been a research focus in recent years. Carbon fiber production is a complicated process including raw material pretreatment, pitch preparation, melt-spinning, stabilization, carbonization, and graphitization. Each step has a significant influence on the properties and performance of the final carbon fiber product, and thus should be controlled effectively for preparing carbon fiber with desirable performance. This review presents a systematic and critical review of the preparation mechanism, influence factors, operational conditions, and various properties of the carbon fiber product, which was clarified along the master line of the step-by-step preparation of pitch-based carbon fibers. Besides, the current issues of carbon fiber production and its potential industrialization, which is the main challenge for the broad application of pitch-based carbon fibers, are also discussed in detail in this review.

KEYWORDS:

• Carbon fiber
• pitch-based
• production
• mechanism
• properties

Highlights

1. This paper presented a review of pitch-based carbon fibers.

2. The line of this review was step-by-step preparation of pitch-based carbon fibers.

3. The mechanism and influence factors of each step were discussed in detail.

4. The future scope of pitch-based carbon fibers was expected.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Jinchang Liu

Jinchang Liu received his Ph. D. degree from Kyushu University in Japan (2018). Currently, he works at China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing. His research interests are in carbon materials science, clean coal technology, and process simulation.

Xujun Chen

Xujun Chen received his Ph. D. degree from Curtin University in Western Australia in 2019. Currently, he is working in Zero Emissions Developments and Energy Consulting Engineers, QLD, Australia. His research interest is in areas of biomass utilization and strategic emission control technologies.

Dingcheng Liang

Dingcheng Liang received his Ph. D. degree from China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing, and is working at China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing. He has worked in clean coal technology fields, such as coal pyrolysis, gasification, and carbon materials for many years.

Qiang Xie

Qiang Xie is a professor at China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing. He received his 1^st Ph. D. degree from China University of Mining and Technology in 1996 and obtained his 2^nd Ph. D. degree from Moscow State Mining University in 2000. His research focuses are on carbon materials science, clean coal technology, solid waste recycling technology, and VOCs treatment technology.