Preparation and characterization of ribbon-shaped mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers with different crystal orientations

Using mesophase pitch as the raw material, with the rectangular-section spinnerets at different aspect ratios (length divided by width), ribbon-shaped mesophase pitch-based carbon fibers with various cross-section sizes and crystal orientations were prepared by adjusting the spinning rate. Effects of the heat-treatment temperature and aspect ratio of spinnerets on structure and properties of the ribbon-shaped carbon fibers were investigated. The results show that the aspect ratio of spinneret and the spinning rate of pitch fibers have a significant influence on the crystal orientation of carbon fibers. Within the specified spinning rate of pitch fibers, the crystal orientation of carbon fibers varies from a parallel-fold structure to a vertical-radial structure with the decrease of the aspect ratio of the spinnerets. The electrical conductivity and the mechanical property of ribbon-shaped carbon fibers significantly increase with the increase of heat-treatment temperature. With increase in spinning rate, there is no obvious change in the room-temperature axial electrical resistivity along the longitudinal direction of fiber, whereas obvious changes in the mechanical property are observed. At 30:1 of the aspect ratio of the spinneret and 75 m/min of spinning rate, the tensile strength and young's modulus of the graphite fibers heat-treated at 2500℃ are up to 2.53 GPa and 234.77 GPa, respectively.