STTR Phase I: Development of a Melt Spinnable Polyacrylonitrile-based Carbon Fiber Precursor

"The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the introduction a cost competitive carbon fiber production from melt-extrudable polymer precursors. Ever since the commercialization of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based solution processing of carbon fiber production in 1960s, there have been no changes to address the use of hazardous solvents and high process cost. This project will replace the current solvent spinning process-based polymer precursor fiber production with melt-spinning and eliminate the use of harmful solvents in spinning process and thereby reduce the production costs, investment costs, and health hazards. The new technology will produce high strength carbon fiber at a reduced cost by 30-40% compared to the current technology. The lower cost of carbon fiber will open up the long-sought application by automotive, offshore wind energy and other industries where carbon fiber composites are used. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to develop a novel manufacturing process to extrude our patented polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based quad polymer into precursor fibers, which are carbonized to produce carbon fibers. High strength carbon fibers have been produced from the PAN based precursor fibers by solvent spinning process since it was developed in 1958. The precursors are still produced by solution spinning of the polyacrylonitrile-based polymers in toxic organic solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethylformamide. These toxic solvents have to be contained, collected, and recycled which adds to high manufacturing costs of carbon fibers. Additional drawbacks in the solvent process include fibers with porosity that prevent the final carbon fiber to reach high strength and slow drawing speed. This results in low manufacturing productivity. The STTR project innovates with a new melt-extrudable polyacrylonitrile-based quad polymer and a melt-spinning process for making precursor fibers. Currently, there is no commercial manufacturing of precursor fibers produced using dry melt-extrusion process to produce the precursor fibers for carbon fiber production. This process will also eliminate the use of hazardous solvent during the precursor fiber extrusion process. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria."