Analysis on the development of global carbon fiber technology

1. Introduction

Carbon fiber is inorganic polymer fiber inorganic new material with carbon content above 95%, with low density, high strength, high temperature resistance, highly chemical stability, anti-fatigue, wear-resistant wipe and other excellent basic physical and chemical properties, and has high vibration attenuation, good conductive thermal conductivity, electromagnetic shielding performance and low thermal expansion coefficient and other characteristics. These excellent properties make carbon fiber widely used in aerospace, rail transit, vehicle manufacturing, weapons and equipment, construction machinery, infrastructure construction, marine engineering, petroleum engineering, wind energy, sporting goods and other fields.

Based on the national strategic needs of carbon fiber materials, China has listed it as one of the core technologies of the emerging industries that are focused on support. In the national "Twelve-Five" Science and technology planning, the preparation and application technology of high performance carbon fiber is one of the core technologies of strategic emerging industries supported by the state. May 2015, the State Council officially released "Made in China 2025", the new materials as one of the key areas of the vigorous promotion and development, including high-performance structural materials, advanced composites is the focus of development in the field of new materials. In October 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Industry officially published the "China Manufacturing 2025 key Areas Technology Roadmap", "high-performance fiber and its composites" as a key strategic material, the 2020 goal is "domestic carbon fiber composites to meet the technical requirements of large aircraft and other important equipment." November 2016, the State Council issued the "Thirteen-Five" national Strategic emerging Industries Development plan, clearly pointed out to strengthen the new material industry upstream and downstream cooperation support, in carbon fiber composites and other fields to carry out collaborative application pilot demonstration, build a collaborative application platform. In January 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Development, the NDRC, science and technology, and the Ministry of Finance jointly formulated the "Guide to the development of new materials industries", and proposed that as of 2020, "in carbon fiber composites, high-quality special steel, advanced light alloy materials and other fields to achieve more than 70 key new materials industrialization and application, Build a process equipment support system that matches the development level of China's new materials industry. ”

Because carbon fiber and its composites play an important role in national defense and People's livelihood, many experts focus on their development and analysis of research trends. Dr. Zhou Hong reviewed the scientific and technological contributions made by American scientists in the early stages of the development of high-performance carbon fiber technology, and scanned and reported on 16 main applications and recent technological advances of carbon fiber, and the production technology, properties and application of polyacrylonitrile carbon fiber and its current technological development were reviewed by Dr. Wei Xin, etc. It also puts forward some constructive suggestions for the problems existing in the development of carbon fiber in China. In addition, many people have carried out research on the metrology analysis of papers and patents in the field of carbon fiber and its composites. For example, Ma Xianglin and others from the point of view of metrology from the 1998-2017 carbon fiber patent distribution and application of the field of analysis; Yang Sisi and others based on innography platform for the global carbon fiber fabric patent search and data statistics, from the annual development trend of patents, patentees, The patent technology hotspot and the core patent of the technology are analyzed.

From the perspective of carbon fiber research and development trajectory, China's research almost synchronized with the world, but the development is slow, high-performance carbon fiber production scale and quality compared with foreign countries have a gap, there is an urgent need to speed up the R & amp; d process, advance strategic layout, seize the future industry development opportunity. Therefore, this paper first investigates the project layout of countries in the field of carbon fiber research, in order to understand the planning of R & amp; d routes in various countries, and secondly, because the basic research and application research of carbon fiber is very important for the technical research and development of carbon fiber, therefore, We conduct metrology analysis from academic research results-SCI papers and applied research results-patents at the same time to obtain a comprehensive understanding of R & amp; d progress in the field of carbon fiber, and to scan recent research developments in this field to Peep International Frontier R & amp; d progress. Finally, based on the above research results, some suggestions for the research and development route in the field of carbon fiber in China are put forward.

2. Carbon fiber research project layout of major countries/regions 

The main production countries of carbon fiber include Japan, the United States, South Korea, some European countries and Taiwan, China. Advanced technology countries in the early stage of the development of carbon fiber technology has realized the importance of this material, has carried out strategic layout, vigorously promote the development of carbon fiber materials.

2.1 Japan

Japan is the most developed country for carbon fiber technology. The 3 companies in Toray, Bong and Mitsubishi Liyang in Japan account for about the global 70%~80% market share of carbon fiber production. Nevertheless, Japan attaches great importance to maintaining its strengths in this field, in particular the development of high-performance pan-based carbon fibers and energy and environment-friendly technologies, with strong human and financial support, and in a number of basic policies, including the basic energy plan, the strategic outline for economic growth and the Kyoto Protocol, Have made this a strategic project that should be advanced. Based on the basic national energy and Environmental Policy, the Ministry of Economy, industry and property of Japan has put forward the "Energy saving technology research and Development Program". Supported by the above policy, the Japanese carbon fiber industry has been able to more effectively centralize all aspects of resources and promote the solution of common problems in the carbon fiber industry.

"Technology development such as innovative new structural materials" (2013-2022) is a project implemented under the "Future Development research project" in Japan to significantly achieve the development of the necessary innovative structural materials technology and the combination of different materials, with the main objective of reducing the lightweight (half of the car weight) of the means of transport. And finally realize its practical application. After taking over the research and development project in 2014, the Industrial Technology Development Agency (NEDO) developed several subprojects in which the overall objectives of the carbon Fiber research project "Innovative carbon fiber basic research and development" were: to develop new carbon fiber precursor compounds; to elucidate the formation mechanism of carbonization structures; and to develop and standardize carbon fiber assessment methods. The project, led by the University of Tokyo and jointly involving the Institute of Industrial Technology (NEDO), Toray, Teijin, Dongyuan, and Mitsubishi Liyang, has made significant progress in January 2016 and is another major breakthrough in the field of pan-based carbon fiber following the invention of the "Kondo mode" in Japan in 1959.

2.2 United States

The U.S. defense pre-research Agency (DARPA) launched the Advanced Structural Fiber project in 2006 with the aim of bringing together the country's dominant scientific research force to develop next-generation structural fibers based on carbon fibers. Supported by this project, the research team of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States broke through the raw wire preparation technology in 2015, increasing its elastic modulus by 30%, marking the United States with the development capacity of the third generation of carbon fiber.

In 2014, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced a 11.3 million-dollar subsidy for two projects on "multi-step catalytic processes for the conversion of non-edible biomass sugars into acrylonitrile" and "research and optimization of acrylonitrile derived from biomass production" to promote the use of agricultural residues, Research on cost-competitive renewable high-performance carbon fiber materials for the production of renewable non-food-based raw materials, such as woody biomass, and plans to reduce the production cost of biomass renewable carbon fibers to less than $5/lb by 2020.

In March 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy again announced 3.74 million of dollars in funding a "low-cost carbon fiber component R & amp; d project" led by the Western American Institute (WRI), which focuses on the development of low-cost carbon fiber components based on resources such as coal and biomass.

July 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the funding of 19.4 million of dollars to support research and development of advanced energy-efficient vehicles, 6.7 million of which are used to fund the preparation of low-cost carbon fibers using computational materials, including the development of multi-scale evaluation methods for integrated computer technology to assess the enthusiasm of new carbon fiber precursors, Advanced molecular dynamics assisted density functional theory, machine learning and other tools are used to develop state-of-the-art computer tools to improve the selection efficiency of low-cost carbon fiber raw materials.

2.3 Europe

The European carbon fiber industry developed in Japan and the United States in the the Seventies or eighties of the 20th century, but because of technology and capital, many single-carbon fiber-producing companies did not adhere to the high growth period of carbon fiber demand after 2000 years and disappeared, The German company SGL is the only company in Europe to have a major share of the world's carbon fiber market.

In November 2011, the European Union launched the Eucarbon Project, which aims to upgrade European manufacturing capabilities in carbon fiber and pre-impregnated materials for aerospace. The project lasted 4 years, with a total investment of 3.2 million euros, and in May 2017 successfully established Europe's first special carbon fiber production line for space applications such as satellites, thus enabling Europe to move away from its import dependence on the product and ensure the safety of the supply of materials.

The EU Seventh framework plans to support the "functional carbon fiber in the preparation of a new precursor system with cost-effective and manageable performance" (FIBRALSPEC) project (2014-2017) in euros 6.08 million. The 4-year project, led by the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, with the participation of multinational companies such as Italy, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, is focused on innovating and improving the process of continuous preparation of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fibers to achieve experimental production of continuously pan-based carbon fibers. The project has successfully completed the development and application of carbon fiber and enhanced composite technology from renewable organic polymer resources (such as supercapacitors, rapid emergency shelters, as well as prototype mechanical electric rotary coating machines and production line development of nanofibers, etc.).

A growing number of industrial sectors, such as automotive, wind power and shipbuilding, require lightweight, high-performance composites, which is a huge potential market for the carbon fiber industry. The EU invests 5.968 million euros to launch the Carboprec project (2014-2017), the strategic goal of which is to develop low-cost precursors from renewable materials that are widely present in Europe and to enhance the production of high-performance carbon fibers through carbon nanotubes.

The European Union's Cleansky II research program funded a "Composite tire R & amp; d" project (2017), headed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production and Systems Reliability (LBF) in Germany, which plans to develop front wheel components for carbon fiber reinforced composite aircraft for Airbus A320, The goal is to reduce weight by 40% compared to conventional metal materials. The project is funded by approximately EUR 200,000.

2.4 Korea

South Korea's carbon fiber R & amp; D and Industrialization started late, R & amp; D began in 2006, 2013 began to formally enter the practical stage, reversing the Korean carbon fiber all dependent on imports of the situation. To South Korea's local xiaoxing group and Taiguang Business as the representative of the industry pioneer actively engaged in the field of carbon fiber industry layout, momentum development is strong. In addition, the carbon fiber production base established by Toray Japan in Korea has also contributed to the carbon fiber market in Korea itself.

The Korean government has chosen to make the xiaoxing Group A gathering place for the innovative industries of carbon fiber. The aim is to form carbon fiber material industry cluster, promote the development of creative economic ecosystem in the whole North region, the ultimate goal is to form carbon fiber material → parts → finished product one-stop production chain, the establishment of carbon fiber incubation cluster can be matched with Silicon Valley in the United States, tap new markets, create new added value, Achieve the target of $10 billion in exports of carbon fiber-related products (equivalent to about 55.2 billion yuan) by 2020.

3. analysis of global carbon fiber research and research output

This subsection counts the SCI papers related to carbon fiber research and the DII patent results since 2010, in order to analyze the academic research and industrial research and development of global carbon fiber technology at the same time, and fully understand the progress of carbon fiber research and development internationally.

Data derived from the Scie database and Dewent database in the web of Science database published by Clarivate Analytics; retrieval time range: 2010-2017; date of retrieval: February 1, 2018.

SCI Paper Retrieval Strategy: Ts=((carbonfibre* or Carbonfiber* or ("Carbon fiber*" not"carbon Fiberglass") or "carbon fibre*" or "carbonfilament*" or ((polyacrylonitrile or pitch) and "precursor*" andfiber*) or ("graphite fiber*")) not ("bamboo carbon"))。

Dewent Patent Search Strategy: Ti=((carbonfibre* or Carbonfiber* or ("Carbon fiber*" not"carbon Fiberglass") or "carbon fibre*" or "carbonfilament*" or ((polyacrylonitrile or pitch) and "precursor*" andfiber*) or ("graphite fiber*")) not ("bamboo carbon")) orTS=((carbonfibre* or Carbonfiber* or ("Carbon fiber*" not"carbon Fiberglass") or "carbon fibre*" or "carbonfilament*" or ((polyacrylonitrile or pitch) and "precursor*" andfiber*) or ("graphite fiber*")) not ("bamboo carbon")) andIP=(D01F-009/12 or D01F-009/127 or D01F-009/133 or D01F-009/14 or D01F-009/145or D01F-009/15 or D01F-009/155 or D01F-009/16 or D01F-009/17 or D01F-009/18 orD01F-009/20 or D01F-009/21 or D01F-009/22 or D01F-009/24 or D01F-009/26 orD01F-09/28 or D01F-009/30 or D01F-009/32 or C08K-007/02 or C08J-005/04 orC04B-035/83 or D06M-014/36 or D06M-101/40 or D21H-013/50 or H01H-001/027 orH01R-039/24)。

3.1 trend

Since 2010, 16,553 relevant papers have been published worldwide, and 26390 invention patents have been applied, all showing a steady upward trend year by year (Figure 1).

carbon fiber

3.2 Country or region distribution

China's carbon fiber papers and invention patent applications (here the statistical priority countries) are the most, showing the leading advantage; the number of papers ranked in the 2~5 in the United States, Japan, the UK, South Korea, and the number of Invention patent applications ranked 2~5 in the countries of Japan, Korea, the United States, Germany (Figure 2).
carbon fiber
3.3 Institutional analysis

The top 10 institutions with the largest output of the global carbon fiber research paper are from China, of which the top 5 are: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Northwestern University of Technology, Donghua University, Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Among the foreign institutions, the Indian Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo, the University of Bristol, Monash University, the University of Manchester and the Georgia Institute of Technology Rank between the 10~20 (Fig. 3).

carbon fiber

Number of patent applications in the top 30 institutions, Japan has 5, and 3 of them are in the top five, Toray company ranked first, followed by Mitsubishi Liyang (2nd), Teijin (4th), East State (10th), Japan Toyo Textile Company (24th), China has 21 institutions, Sinopec Group has the largest number of patents, ranking third, Secondly, Harbin Institute of Technology, Henan Ke Letter cable company, Donghua University, China Shanghai Petrochemical, Beijing Chemical Industry, etc., the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanxi Coal application invention Patent 66, ranked 27th, South Korean institutions have 2, of which Xiaoxing Co., Ltd. ranked first, ranking 8th.

Output institutions, the output of the paper mainly from universities and scientific research institutions, patent output mainly from the company, it can be seen that carbon fiber manufacturing is a high-tech industry, as the main body of carbon fiber R & amp; d Industry Development, the company attaches great importance to the protection of carbon fiber R & amp; d technology, especially the 2 major companies in Japan, The number of patents is far ahead.

3.4 Research Hotspots

Carbon fiber research papers cover the most research topics: Carbon fiber composites (including carbon fiber reinforced composites, polymer matrix composites, etc.), mechanical properties research, finite element analysis, carbon nanotubes, delamination, reinforcement, fatigue, microstructure, electrostatic spinning, surface treatment, adsorption and so on. Papers dealing with these keywords account for 38.8% of the total number of papers.

Carbon fiber invention patents cover the most topics related to the preparation of carbon fiber, production equipment and composite materials. Among them, Japan Toray, Mitsubishi Liyang, Teijin and other companies in the "carbon fiber reinforced polymer compounds" in the field of important technical layout, in addition, Toray and Mitsubishi Liyang in "Polyacrylonitrile production of carbon fiber and production equipment", "with unsaturated nitrile, such as polyacrylonitrile, polyvinylidene cyanide ethylene production of carbon fiber" and other technologies have a large proportion of the patent layout, and the Japanese Teijin company in the "carbon fiber and oxygen compound composites" have a larger proportion of the patent layout.

China Sinopec Group, Beijing Chemical University, Chinese Academy of Sciences Ningbo Materials in the "polyacrylonitrile production of carbon fiber and production equipment" has a large proportion of the patent layout; In addition, Beijing University of Chemical Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanxi Coal Chemical Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Ningbo materials key Layout "Using inorganic element fiber as the ingredients of polymer compound preparation" technology has Harbin Institute of Technology focuses on the layout of "carbon fiber treatment", "carbon fiber and oxygen-containing compound composites" and other technologies.

In addition, it is found from the annual statistical distribution statistics of global patents that a number of new hot spots have begun to emerge in the last three years, such as: "Compositions of polyamides obtained from the formation of carboxylate bonding reaction in the main chain", "polyester compositions from the formation of 1 carboxylic acid ester bonds in the main chain", "composite material based on synthetic materials" , "cyclic carboxylic acid containing oxygen compounds as ingredients of carbon fiber composites", "in three-dimensional form of solidification or treatment of textile materials", "unsaturated ether, acetal, semi-acetal, ketone or aldehyde through only the carbon-carbon unsaturated bond reaction to the production of polymer Compounds", "adiabatic material pipe or cable", " Carbon fiber composites with phosphate esters as ingredients "and so on.

4.Research and Development Dynamic of carbon fiber technology

In recent years, R & amp; d in the carbon fiber sector has emerged, with most of the breakthroughs coming from the United States and Japan The latest cutting-edge technologies focus not only on carbon fiber production and preparation technology, but also on applications in a wider range of automotive materials, such as lightweight, 3D printing, and power generation materials. In addition, the recycling and recycling of carbon fiber materials, the preparation of wood lignin carbon fiber and other achievements have bright eye performance. The representative results are described below:

1) US Georgia Institute of Technology breaks through third generation carbon fiber technologies

In July 2015, with DARPA funding, the Georgia Institute of Technology, with its innovative pan-based carbon fiber gel spinning technique, significantly increased its modulus, surpassing the Hershey IM7 Carbon fiber, which is now widely used in military aircraft, marking the second country in the world to master the third generation of carbon fiber technology after Japan.

The tensile strength of the gel spinning carbon fiber made by Kumarz reaches 5.5 to 5.8Gpa, and the tensile modulus is between 354-375gpa. "This is the continuous fiber that has been reported with the highest strength and modulus of comprehensive performance. In the short filament bundle, the tensile strength up to 12.1Gpa, the same is the highest polyacrylonitrile carbon fiber. ”

2) Electromagnetic wave heating technology

In the 2014, Nedo developed electromagnetic wave heating technology. Electromagnetic wave carbonization technology refers to the use of electromagnetic wave heating technology to carbonization the fiber at atmospheric pressure. The obtained carbon fiber performance is basically the same as the carbon fiber produced by high temperature heating, the elastic modulus can reach more than 240GPA, and the elongation at break is more than 1.5%, which is the first success in the world.

The fiber-like material is carbonized by electromagnetic wave, so that the carbonization furnace equipment used for high temperature heating is not needed. This process not only reduces the time required for carbonization, but also reduces energy consumption and reduces CO2 emissions.

3) fine control of carbonization process

In the March 2014, Toray announced the successful development of the t1100g carbon fiber. Toray uses the traditional pan solution spinning technology to fine-control the carbonization process, improve the microstructure of carbon fiber on the nanoscale, control the graphite microcrystalline orientation, microcrystalline size, defects and so on in the fiber after carbonization, so that the strength and elastic modulus can be greatly improved. The tensile strength of t1100g is 6.6GPa, which is 12% higher than that of T800, and the elastic modulus is 324GPa and increased by 10%, which is entering the industrialization stage.

4) Surface Treatment Technology

Teijin East State has successfully developed plasma surface treatment technology that can control the appearance of carbon fiber in just a few seconds. This new technology significantly simplifies the entire production process and reduces energy consumption by 50% compared to the existing surface treatment technology for electrolyte aqueous solutions. Moreover, after plasma treatment, it was found that the adhesion of fiber and resin matrix was also improved.

5) study on the retention rate of carbon fiber tensile strength in high temperature graphite environment

Ningbo materials successfully carried out a detailed study on the process analysis, structure research and performance optimization of domestic high strength and tall mode carbon fiber, especially the research work on the retention rate of carbon fiber tensile strength in high temperature graphite environment, and the recent successful preparation of high strength and higher modulus carbon fiber with tensile strength 5.24GPa and tensile modulus volume 593GPa, It continues to have the advantage of tensile strength compared to Japan's Toray m60j high-strength highly-molded carbon fiber (tensile strength 3.92GPa, tensile modulus 588GPa).

6) Microwave Graphite

Yongda Advanced Materials has successfully developed the United States exclusive patent ultra-high temperature graphite technology, the production of medium and higher-order carbon fiber, successfully broke through the three bottlenecks in the development of high-order carbon fiber, graphite equipment is expensive and under international control, raw silk chemical technology difficulties, production yield low and high cost. So far, Yongda has developed 3 kinds of carbon fibers, all of which have raised the strength and modulus of the original relatively low grade carbon fiber to a new height.

7) New process of melting spinning of pan-based carbon fiber raw wire by Fraunhofer, Germany

The Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Polymers (Applied polymer Research, IAP) recently announced that it will showcase the latest Comcarbon technology at the Berlin Air Show Ila on April 2018 25, 29th. This technology greatly reduces the production cost of mass-produced carbon fiber.

carbon fiber

Fig. 4 Raw wire melting spinning.

It is well known that in traditional processes, half of the production cost of pan-based carbon fiber is consumed in the process of raw wire production. In view of the inability of the raw wire to melt, it must be produced using an expensive solution spinning process (Solution Spinning). "To this end, we have developed a new process for the production of pan-based raw silk, which can reduce the production cost of raw wire by 60%. This is an economical and feasible melting spinning process, using a specially developed fused pan-based copolymer. "Dr. Johannes Ganster, Minister of biological Polymers at the Fraunhofer IAP Institute, explained.

8) Plasma oxidation technology

4M Carbon fiber announced that it will make the use of plasma oxidation technology to manufacture and sell high-quality, low-cost carbon fiber as a strategic focus, not just to license the technology. 4M claims that plasma oxidation technology is 3 times times faster than conventional oxidation technology, while the use of energy is less than one-third of traditional technology. And the statements have been validated by many international carbon fiber producers, which are consulting with a number of the world's largest carbon fiber manufacturers and automakers to participate as initiators of the production of low-cost carbon fibers.

9) Cellulose Nano fiber

The Kyoto University of Japan, together with several major components suppliers such as the electrical installation company (Toyota's largest supplier) and Daikyonishikawa Corp., is working on the development of plastic materials that combine cellulose nanofibers, This material is made by breaking the wood pulp into a few microns (1 per thousand mm). The weight of the new material is only one-fifth of the weight of steel, but its strength is five times times that of steel.

10) carbon fiber front body of polyolefin and lignin raw materials

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States has been working on low-cost carbon fiber research since 2007, and they have developed carbon fiber front bodies for polyolefin and lignin raw materials, as well as advanced plasma pre-oxidation and microwave carbonization technologies.

11) The new polymer (precursor polymer) was developed by removing refractory treatment

In the manufacturing method led by the University of Tokyo, a new polymer (precursor polymer) has been developed to remove refractory treatment. The main point is that after spinning the polymer into silk, it does not carry out the original refractory treatment, but causes it to oxidize in the solvent. The microwave heating device is then heated to more than 1000 ℃ for carbonization. Heating time takes only 2-3 minutes. After carbonization treatment, plasma is also used to carry out surface treatment, so that carbon fiber can be made. Plasma treatment takes less than 2 minutes. In this way, the original sintering time of 30-60 minutes can be reduced to about 5 minutes. In the new manufacturing method, plasma treatment is carried out to improve the bonding between carbon fiber and thermoplastic resin as CFRP base material. The tensile elastic modulus of carbon fiber manufactured by new manufacturing method is 240GPa, the tensile strength is 3.5GPa and the elongation reaches 1.5%. These values are the same level as the Toray Universal grade carbon fiber T300 used for sporting goods, etc.

12) recycling and utilization of carbon fiber materials using fluidized bed process

Mengran Meng, the study's first author, said: "Carbon fiber recovery reduces the impact on the environment compared to raw carbon fiber production, but there is limited awareness of potential recycling technologies and the economic feasibility of recycling carbon fiber utilization. "Recycling takes two stages: the fibers must first be recovered from the carbon fiber composites and thermally decomposed by mechanical grinding materials or by using pyrolysis or fluidized bed processes. These methods remove the plastic part of the composite material, leaving carbon fiber, which can then be converted into tangled fiber mats using wet papermaking technology, or re-organized into directional fibers.

The researchers calculated that carbon fiber could be recovered from carbon fiber composite waste using a fluidized bed process, requiring only 5 of dollars/kg and less than 10% of the energy required to manufacture the primary carbon fiber. Recycled carbon fibers produced by fluidized bed processes hardly reduce modulus, and tensile strength is reduced by 18% to 50% relative to primary carbon fibers, making them suitable for applications requiring high stiffness rather than strength. "Recycled carbon fibers may be suitable for non-structural applications that require lightweight, such as the automotive, construction, wind and sports industries," Meng said.

13) New technology of carbon fiber recycling developed in the United States

June 2016, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States soaked carbon fiber in a solvent containing alcohol to dissolve the epoxy resin, the separated fibers and epoxy resins can be reused, the successful realization of carbon fiber recovery.

July 2017, Washington State University also developed a carbon fiber recovery technology, using weak acid as a catalyst, the use of liquid ethanol at relatively low temperatures to decompose thermosetting materials, decomposed carbon fiber and resin are preserved separately, and can be put into reproduction.

14) Development of 3D printing carbon fiber ink technology in LLNL laboratory, USA

In the March 2017, the Lawrence Livemore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the United States developed the first 3D printed high-performance, aviation-grade carbon fiber composites. They used a 3D printing method of direct ink transmission (DIW) to create complex three-dimensional structures that greatly improved processing speed for use in the automotive, aerospace, defense, and motorcycle competitions and surfing.

15) The United States, Korea and China cooperate in the development of carbon fiber for power generation

In the August 2017, the Dallas campus of the University of Texas, Hanyang University in Korea, Nankai University in China and other institutions collaborated in the development of a carbon fiber yarn material for power generation. The yarn is first soaked in electrolyte solutions such as brine, allowing the ions in the electrolyte to attach to the surface of the carbon nanotubes, which can be converted into electrical energy when the yarn is tightened or stretched. The material can be used in any place with reliable kinetic energy and is suitable for providing power to IoT sensors.

16) New progress in the research of wood lignin carbon fiber obtained by Chinese and American respectively

In March 2017, the special fiber team of Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and engineering prepared a lignin-acrylonitrile copolymer with good spinnability and thermal stability by using esterification and free radical copolymerization two-step modification technology. High quality continuous filaments were obtained by using the copolymer and wet spinning process, and the compact carbon fiber was received after thermal stabilization and carbonization treatment.

In August 2017, the Birgitte ahring research team at the University of Washington in the United States mixed lignin and polyacrylonitrile in different proportions, and then used melt spinning technology to convert mixed polymers into carbon fibers. The study found that the lignin added to the 20%∼30% did not affect the strength of the carbon fiber and was expected to be used in the production of lower-cost carbon fiber materials for automotive or aircraft parts.

At the end of 2017, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released research on the manufacture of acrylonitrile using waste parts of plants, such as corn straw and wheat straw. They first break down plant materials into sugar and then convert them into acids, and combine them with cheap catalysts to produce target products.

17) Japan develops the first carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite car chassis

October 2017, Japan's new energy industry technology integrated R & amp; d Agency and Nagoya University National Composites Research Center successfully developed the world's first carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite car chassis. They use automatic long fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites direct on-line molding process, continuous carbon fiber and thermoplastic resin particles mixing, manufacturing fiber reinforced composites, and then through heating and melting connection, the successful production of thermoplastic CFRP car chassis.

5. suggestions on R &  D of carbon fiber technology in China

5.1 Forward-looking layout, goal-oriented, focus on breaking through the third generation of carbon fiber technology

China's second-generation carbon fiber technology is not yet a comprehensive breakthrough, our country should try to be forward-looking layout that will bring together top up our relevant research institutions, focused on the capture of key technologies, the focus of the third generation of high-performance carbon fiber preparation technology research and development (ie applicable to aerospace high strength, high modulus carbon fiber technology), and the carbon fiber composite material technology developed, including for the automotive, construction and repair and other lightweight, low-cost large tow carbon fiber preparation, additive manufacturing technology carbon fiber composite material, recycling technology and rapid prototyping technologies.

5.2 Co-ordinating organization, strengthen support, set up major technical projects to continuously support collaborative research

At present, there are many institutions to carry out carbon fiber research in China, but the power is dispersed, and there is no unified R & amp; d organization mechanism and strong funding support for effective coordination. Judging from the development experience of advanced countries, the organization and layout of major projects play a great role in promoting the development of this technical field. We should focus on China's Advantage R & amp; d Force, in view of China's carbon fiber breakthrough R & amp; d technology to start major projects, strengthen collaborative technological innovation, and constantly promote China's carbon fiber research technology level, competition for international carbon fiber and composite.

5.3 Improving the evaluation mechanism of application effect orientation of technical achievements

From the point of view of econometric analysis of SCI papers, China's carbon fiber as a high-strength performance materials used in various fields of research, but for carbon fiber production and preparation technology, especially focusing on reducing costs, improve production efficiency of less research. Carbon fiber production process is long, technology key points, high production barriers, is a multi-disciplinary, multi-technology integration, need to break through the technical obstacles, to effectively promote the "low cost, high performance" core preparation technology research and development, on the one hand, need to strengthen research investment, on the other hand, need to weaken the field of scientific research performance evaluation , strengthen the guidance of the application effect evaluation of technical achievements, and shift from the "quantitative" evaluation, which pays attention to the publication of the paper, to the "quality" evaluation of the value of the results.

5.4 Strengthening the cultivation of cutting-edge technology compound talents

The high-tech attribute of carbon fiber technology determines the importance of specialized talents, whether they have cutting-edge core technical personnel directly determines the level of R & amp; D of an institution.

As a result of carbon fiber technology R & D links, we should pay attention to the training of compound personnel, in order to ensure the coordination and development of all links. In addition, from the development history of carbon fiber research in China, the flow of technology core experts is often a key factor affecting the R & amp; d level of a research institution. Maintaining the fixation of core experts and R & amp; d teams in production processes, composites and major products is important for continuous technology upgrades.

We should continue to strengthen the training and use of specialized high-tech personnel in this field, improve the evaluation and treatment policy for Technology R & amp; d talents, strengthen the cultivation of young talents, actively support cooperation and exchanges with foreign advanced R & amp; d institutions, and vigorously introduce foreign advanced talents, etc. This will play a great role in promoting the development of carbon fiber research in China.
Quoted from-
Analysis on the development of global carbon fiber technology and its enlightenment to China. Tian Yajuan,Zhang Zhiqiang,Tao Cheng,Yang ming,Ba jin,Chen Yunwei. World Sci-Tech R & D. 2018


Post time: Dec-04-2018

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