Donghua University Research Room "Black Gold" Carbon Fiber Assists Rocket To The Sky

Recently, the reporter walked into the laboratory of Professor Pan Ding, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, and had a taste of carbon fibre The magic of.

In the laboratory, Professor Pan cut out a bunch of black carbon fiber precursor, tied it to a 200g weight, hung it on the bracket, and then pointed the flame gun at the carbon fiber with a high temperature of 2000 ℃. Not only was it not burned, but the carbon fiber was not hot to the touch, and the appearance did not change at all.

"The process of preparing carbon fiber is simply 'precursor+carbonization'," Professor Pan Ding told reporters. Organic parent fibers such as viscose fiber, polyacrylonitrile or asphalt are treated with inert gas at 1000 ℃~3000 ℃, and all elements except carbon are removed. Professor Pan Ding recalled that in the 1980s, China's number one strategic weapon was faced with the last two remaining problems. One of the "roadblocks" is aerospace grade high-purity viscose based carbon fiber. As the key material for the thermal barrier of intercontinental missile warheads, the performance and quality of aerospace grade high-purity viscose based carbon fibers are directly related to the quality and success of flight. Because of its high requirements for raw materials and extremely difficult preparation technology, it was only owned by the United States and Russia.

"Difficulties cannot be overcome, and missiles cannot be launched!" The carbon fiber project team led by Professor Pan Ding was ordered to use cotton pulp based cellulose as raw material, and overcame such difficulties as "raw silk, process, strength, and waste discharge". After four years of hard work, it made breakthroughs in the basic theory, technology, and preparation of carbon fiber production, We have successfully developed aerospace grade high-purity viscose based carbon fiber, making China the third country in the world to master the development technology of aerospace grade high-purity viscose based carbon fiber.

In order to "upgrade" the new material industry, scientists have invested in the continuous research of polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber. Compared with viscose based carbon fiber, polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber is also used in national defense and military industry, but it involves a wider range of civilian fields, not only aircraft, cars and other means of transportation can be used, but also building materials, medical equipment, sporting goods and other aspects can be promising. For example, the aircraft used to use aluminum alloy consumables, which had fatigue limits. The polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber material would not only make the fuselage lighter and fly faster, but more importantly, the strength would be strengthened, the fracture probability would be greatly reduced, and the safety factor would also be greatly improved; For another example, there is much salt in the air of coastal cities, and carbon fiber is also used in the construction of viaducts to enhance corrosion resistance; The ultralight bicycles and badminton rackets that have flown into ordinary people's homes are also made of carbon fiber materials.

It is estimated that by 2015, the domestic carbon fiber capacity demand will reach 12000 tons. Therefore, carbon fiber research should not only focus on basic research, but also cooperate with enterprises to innovate and realize technology and process innovation, "that is, we should not only understand the principle, know the 'why', but also understand the method, know the 'how to do' and 'how to industrialize'". To this end, Donghua University and the largest civil carbon fiber manufacturer in China have established Donghua University - Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Engineering Research Center, Donghua University Postdoctoral Station in Materials Science and Engineering and other collaborative innovation platforms to enhance the R&D strength of enterprises.