Fabrication of liner low-density polyvinyl-based carbon fibers via ultraviolet irradiation-vulcanization crosslinking.

In this paper, the linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) fibers were used as the precursors to prepare low-cost carbon fibers (CFs) via ultraviolet crosslinking-vulcanized stabilization-carbonization processing. The spinning particles were obtained by mixing linear low-density polyethylene with photoinitiator 4-chlorobenzophenone (4-CBP), crosslinkers triallyl isocyanurate (TAIC), and thermal stabilizer antioxidant 1010, and then the ultraviolet (UV) photosensitive LLDPE fibers were fabricated by traditional melt spinning. Then, the LLDPE primary fibers were treated by UV irradiation, vulcanized stabilization and carbonization to obtain the low-cost CFs. to characterize the structure and properties of ultraviolet crosslinked polyethylene (UV-XLPE) fibers and CFs, the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, differential scanning calorimeter, thermogravimetric analyzer, X-ray diffractometer and scanning electron microscope were adopted. The results showed that, UV irradiation introduced a crosslinked structure of LLDPE fibers, and the degree of gelation of XLPE fibers reached a maximum of 48.6% when UV irradiation was carried out for 15 min; with the extension of UV irradiation time, the melting temperature and crystallization temperature of UV-XLPE fibers move to the direction of low temperature, and the crystal size of the fiber decreases; after vulcanization, the carbon yield of the fiber is significantly improved, reaching up to 62.9%, and the surface and section of CFs are dense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]