Study on Polycarbosilane Fibers Cured by Thermal Process and Electron Beam Irradiation

A non wovenpolycarbosilane (PCS) fibers was successfully produced by electrospinning and processed by a thermal curing and electron beam curing. PCS solution composition was 1.2 g/ml PCS with 30% N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)/70%toluene and the applied voltage at 10 kV in spinning process. The PCS fibers with average diameter ~8 µm cured by thermal at 200 o C with varied time (1, 1.5 and 2 hour(s)) were compared to thefiber that processed by electron beam curing with varied absorbed doses(approximately 23, 139, 231, 324, 509 and 787 kGy). The structural changes of PCS fibers after curing process was analyzed by FTIR. The fibers cured by thermal process all shows oxidation curing and fibers cured by electron beam all shows non-oxidation curing. The fibers cured by thermal process with holding time at 1 hour and cured by electron beam with absorbed doses at 231 kGy show the higher crosslinking degree. The fibersthat curing by electron beam are more brittle compared to the fibers that curing by thermal process. The empirical chemical formula for pyrolyzed fiber are SiO0.49C0.51for cured at 1 hour, SiO0.53C0.47for cured at 1.5 hours and SiO0.61C0.39for cured at 2 hours.