what is carbon fiber composite
The carbon fibers are particularly fine - of the order of 5 to 10 micrometers in diameter - and composed almost exclusively of carbon atoms - plus a few percent of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen atoms . They are used in particular to reinforce certain composite materials.
Features and benefits of carbon fiber
Carbon fibers have certain advantages:
They conduct electricity and heat well (advantages which can also become disadvantages depending on the application).
They are rigid (their modulus of elasticity can however vary depending on the implementation parameters).
They resist traction, as well as compression. In this sense, they are even as solid as steel, or even more.
They are almost 70% lighter than steel.
Carbon fiber in industry: car, plane ...
These characteristics are of great interest to the industry. The automotive industry hopes, for example, by incorporating carbon fibers into automobiles, to reduce the mass by several hundred kilograms. As for aeronautics, the Airbus A380 already benefits greatly from the lightness of carbon fibers.
Manufacturing and disadvantages of carbon fiber
Carbon fibers are produced from chemical precursors such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN: [CH2-CH-CH] n). The PAN fibers are first oxidized and then a step called "carbonization" is carried out. A graphitation step completes the whole thing when trying to obtain more rigid carbon fibers.
As a result, carbon fiber remains relatively expensive, in particular because its production is very energy-consuming. Industrial processes are longer than those used to produce parts made of conventional materials.
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