from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is commonly used as a raw material for making carbon fibers. This work is about dissolving waste acrylic fibers in suitable solvent to make thick acrylic solution. This solution is coated onto glass fiber mats. Acrylic coated glass mats are irradiated with CO2 laser and possibility of carbonizing acrylic is studied. These coated samples are preheated at different temperatures from 300 °C to 500 °C to stabilize Polyacrylonitrile before converting it to carbon structure. It is found that stabilization at 300°C works well in order to stabilize acrylonitrile prior to laser irradiation. Heat treated and non-preheated samples were irradiated by laser for studying possibility of carbonization of PAN polymer. It is found that laser treatment of PAN coated glass fiber mats produces electrically conductive lines on the surface of the material. Moreover the conductivity is increased when the material is preheated to 300°C before laser irradiation. It is also found that conventional heat treatment is not suitable for carbonizing PAN coated surface.
Keywords: PAN, Carbonization, Conductive nonwoven© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.