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High Strength, High Modulus Graphite Fibres from Pitch

Abstract

FIBRE composite technology has advanced rapidly in recent years with the development of several types of strong, stiff fibres, for example, S-glass, boron and graphite. The superior structural efficiency of graphite fibres is due to a combination of high strength and modulus and low specific gravity. The high modulus, and to some extent the high strength, is thought to be a consequence of the high degree of orientation and the small size of the graphite crystallites1,2. To date such graphite fibres have only been obtained from synthetic, oriented, polymeric precursor fibres, of which the two main examples are rayon and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). In this laboratory high performance, highly oriented continuous graphite fibres have been produced from a number of readily available and inexpensive pitch precursors.

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HAWTHORNE, H., BAKER, C., BENTALL, R. et al. High Strength, High Modulus Graphite Fibres from Pitch. Nature 227, 946–947 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/227946a0

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