Carbon Fibers Made from Cellulose Acetate as a Green Polymer Precursor

Carbon fibers are routinely prepared using petroleum-based precursor fibers. To proceed toward a more sustainable method of production, cellulose has been utilized as an alternative carbon source. In this work, carbon fibers were manufactured from deacetylated cellulose acetate fibers through pyrolysis. First, cellulose acetate filaments were continuously spun by using wet spinning, followed by deacetylation. The resulting cellulose filaments were continuously carbonized without using any carbonization agents. Considering the use of regenerated cellulose precursor fibers, carbon fibers with surprisingly high mechanical strength were achieved in a continuous pyrolysis process at 1400 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere. Fibers showed diameters below 10 μm, tensile strengths, and Young's moduli of up to 0.9 and 90 GPa.