Towards Large-Scale Unconventional Micro-meter Diameter Carbon Fiber Production

Global carbon fibre (CF) market is approximately $4.5 billion per year. The conventional CF precursor is polyacrylonitrile (PAN) due to its high carbon content, high molecular weight and ease of processability. However, its high cost is a disadvantage in some applications. Asphaltene is a strong candidate as a CF precursor due to its abundance and low cost, and high carbon content. Our team has years of experience in small scale CF production using lignin and asphaltene. We propose the use of melt-electrospinning to form asphaltene-based fibre precursors that can be converted to CF.