As the current market demand of low cost carbon fiber increases, lignin, as the byproduct of pulp and paper industry, has been considered a cost-effective alternative precursor material for carbon fiber production. In this work, PAN/lignin fiber blend was fabricated via gel spinning to investigate the effects of lignin on fiber properties and thermal stabilization reaction kinetics. PAN/lignin composite precursor fiber exhibited higher tensile modulus, tensile strength, and toughness compared to PAN fiber. Thermal stabilization reactions (e.g. oxidation, cyclization, and crosslinking) for both PAN and PAN/lignin fibers were individually studied. Addition of lignin was shown to reduce the activation energies and increase reaction rates of cyclization, oxidation, and crosslinking reactions of PAN while promoting crosslinking under inert environment. This increases the tension that fiber can bear during stabilization and carbonization, and results in a net positive impact on ultimate fiber properties. These studies also imply a potential reduction in processing time and in the energy consumption for stabilization process of the PAN/lignin blend based carbon fiber fabrication as compared to the PAN fibers. Thus lignin incorporation in PAN suggests a route toward green manufacturing of carbon fiber.

Structure, properties, and stabilization kinetics of gel spun polyacrylonitrile/lignin blends toward carbon fiber

251st National Meeting (2016)

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