FABRICATION OF CARBON FIBERS FROM COMMERCIAL WET SPIN POLYACRYLONITRILE FIBERS

Carbon fib ers are fabricated f rom different materials such as special polyacrylonitrile(pan) fib ers, cellulose fib ers and pitch. but pan fib ers are recognized as the most widely usedprecursor for the present-day manufacture of carbon fibers. the process offabrication carbonfibers from special pan fi bers is composed of two steps including oxidative stabilization at lowtemperature and carbonization at high temperatures in an inert atmosphere. today carbon fib ersare still expensive because ofthe high price oftheir raw material (special panfib ers).this study f ocuses on making carbon fib ers from commercial pan fib ers (low price pan fib ersused in textile industry). the results shows that in case of conducting complete stabilizationpro cess, it is possible to produ ce desirable carbon fib ers from commercial panfib ers. with somechanges in conventional procedure ofstabiliz ation in terms oftemperature and time of operation,the desirable conditions ofcomplet e stabilization are achieved.