Improved production of carbon fibers

US4882139A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Rutgerswerke Aktiengesellschaft · DE

Inventors

• Herbert Beneke · Castrop-Rauxel, DE
• Siegfried Peter · Erlangen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 30, 1988
• Grant date: Nov 21, 1989
• Expiry date: Nov 30, 2008

Classification

• Technology area (CPC D): Textiles; Paper
• CPC primary: D01F9/155
• WIPO field: Textile and paper machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

In a process for the production of carbon fibers from high boiling bituminous substances in which a purified and polymerized concentrated carbon fiber precursor is spun into fibers which are oxidized and then carbonized and optionally graphitized, the improvement comprising just before spinning a supercritical gas is dissolved in mesophase pitch at a pressure of 100 to 350 bars and a temperature up to 150.degree. K. below the melting temperature of the mesophase pitch to form a low viscosity melt, separating the latter into an isotropic phase and an anisotropic carbon fiber precursor and spinning the latter into fibers whereby the spinning temperature is lowered and the mesophase contact is increased due to the viscosity lowering activity of the supercritical gas.