Post spinning treatment of PAN fibers using succinic acid to produce high performance carbon fibers Original Research Article

The post spinning treatment of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers using succinic acid has been studied. Succinic acid itself did not react with the PAN fibers, but converted into succinic anhydride during heating in thermal stabilization, which could act as plasticizer, and resulted in more than three times larger elongation in the treated fibers as compared to untreated fibers by stretching. The resulting carbon fibers had a small diameter of 1 μm against 6.1 μm and high mechanical properties after heat treatment to 1500 °C and 2500 °C.