RAFT is relatively new technique to manufacture PAN polymer grade for high performance carbon fibre. There are some interesting patents/papers around this area reported low PDI, high MW achieved through successful utilisation of RAFT agent. I wonder if you have seen any literature reported possible roadblocks to adopt RAFT in current PAN polymerisation? Thank you very much for your valuable input: Kind Regards, Abdullah Kafi
Dear Abdullah;
it is not really hard to find documents on the RAFT polymerization of acrylonitrile. Please find and attached example. Regards
Dear Abelkhader, my question is to understand the commercial viability of RAFT method for PAN, specially for CF. Regards,
Dear all,
I think Prof. Andrew B. Lowe is the most specialized scientist on RG who may help you since his experience on all facets of RAFT polymerization is really tough. This the link to his account on RG.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew_Lowe7
Also for the carbon fiber part I advise you to take profit from Prof. Michael Heine since he is following your question. Regards
Hi Kafi
I have not really read much about RAFT but it could be a potentially good PAN precursor. As I understand it there is the potential to improve the tacticity. For CF yield and stabilisation during oxidation/pyrolysis, we need higher concentrations and /or length of isotactic sequences in PAN. The other aspect is drawability and ladder polymer initiation which may require some comonomers.
Cheers
Thanks Abdelkader- I plan to read Andrew's paper and also looking forward if there is any comment from Michael...
Hi Frank, Thanks!What I extracted from you is that RAFT can improve tacticity of PAN structure which will increase the CF yield after conversion. If I am not wrong, yield is directly linked to carbon content, so how RAFT can play a role to have more remianing carbon after the conversion? Say in one recipe, I do not see any significant difference in % weight loss even though MW/MWD was great.. Referring to your comment on drawability, I wonder if you mean to add a special comonomer to achieve high draw ratio during spinning in addition to RAFT agent? Regards, Kafi
Hi Kafi
Check out the RAFT chemistry wrt tacticity and I will get back to you later.
Cheers
Frank
Thanks Frank-Sure I will search this keyword and also planning read Jeff Wiggins paper over this weekend.Let's stay in touch..
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