Preparation, Stabilization and Carbonization of a Novel Polyacrylonitrile-Based Carbon Fiber Precursor

The quality of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor has a great influence on the properties of the resultant carbon fibers. In this paper, a novel comonomer containing the sulfonic group, 2-acrtlamido-2-methylpropane acid (AMPS), was introduced to prepare P(AN-co-AMPS) copolymers using itaconic acid (IA) as the control. The nanofibers of PAN, P(AN-co-IA), and P(AN-co-AMPS) were prepared using the electrospinning method. The e ff ect of AMPS comonomer on the carbon nanofibers was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), di ff erential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray di ff raction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Raman spectrum. The structural evolutions of PAN-based nanofibers were quantitatively tracked by FTIR and XRD during the thermal oxidative stabilization (TOS) process. The results suggested that P(AN-co-AMPS) nanofibers had the lower heat release rate (Delta H/Delta T = 26.9 J g(-1) degrees C-1), the less activation energy of cyclization (E-a1 = 26.6 kcal/mol and E-a2 = 27.5 kcal/mol), and the higher extent of stabilization (E-s and SI) during TOS process, which demonstrated that the AMPS comonomer improved the efficiency of the TOS process. The P(AN-co-AMPS) nanofibers had the better thermal stable structures. Moreover, the carbon nanofibers derived from P(AN-co-AMPS) precursor nanofibers had the better graphite-like structures (X-G = 46.889). Therefore, the AMPS is a promising candidate comonomer to produce high performance carbon fibers.