A new process was developed by the Technical University of Technology in St. Petersburg, Russia. Using this process, ordinary cellulose as raw material can successfully produce industrial carbon fiber materials with good properties.
Carbon fiber material has an important use value in the industry. It is non-toxic, non-explosive, and resistant to corrosion. Carbon fiber materials are commonly used in industrial production instead of gold. Electrode made of carbon fiber material can extract precious metals from industrial waste. Experts said that electrodes made of 1 kilogram of carbon fiber material can extract 30 to 40 kilograms of gold from industrial waste solutions. In addition, there are many other uses for carbon fiber materials, such as the production of safe heating elements and air purification equipment.
Ordinary cellulose is the best raw material for obtaining carbon fiber materials. However, according to the usual production process, the yield of carbon fiber material obtained is extremely low. In the new production process developed by Russian researchers, the use of inorganic and organic silicon additives has increased the production of carbon fiber materials by one to two times. At the same time, due to the use of aqueous solutions of additives in the production process, the production costs are greatly reduced, and at the same time the environmental pollution is greatly reduced.
To test the role of the additive, the researchers first used a solution of the additive to soak cloth strips made of industrial lines, and then heat-treated at 200 degrees Celsius to 700 degrees Celsius, and finally at the highest temperature for 20 minutes. After the above process, the strips were completely carbonized and turned into carbon fibers. Experiments have also found that the best additives are chlorite, iodine, ammonium tetrafluoroborate and urea. The most effective additives are their mixtures. Additives can not only greatly increase the production of carbon fiber, but also increase its strength.