Читать книгу Carbon Nanofibers - Группа авторов - Страница 16

The development of carbon fibers dates back as early as the 18th century but its applications were only realized after 1960, making it possible to develop carbon fibers with high strength. Some landmarks in the development of carbon fibers are given here. In 1860, Joseph Swan first produced carbon fibers. In 1879, Thomas Edison carbonized cotton threads or bamboo slivers to produce carbon fiber. He used it as wire filament which glows under electric current. Roger Bacon prepared carbon fiber containing about 20% carbon in 1958 by carbonizing rayon. The process of carbonizing rayon was later improved in 1960 by Richard Millington (US Patent No 3,294,489) [1] to get carbon fiber with almost 99% carbon. During the 1960s, a Japanese firm produced carbon fibers from a petroleum pitch which contained 85% carbon and had excellent flexural strength. After 1960, it seems various efforts were made to prepare carbon fibers (Figure 1.2) from different types of precursors to improve the quality of carbon fibers; for example, giving tensile strength 4,000 MPa and a modulus of 400 GPa to be used in aircraft.

Figure 1.2 SEM image of carbon fiber.