OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETERS FOR PRODUCTION OF CARBON NANOFIBERS FROM POLYACRYLONITRILE BY SOLUTION BLOW SPINNING (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Carbon nanofibers are materials that exhibit a high surface area and good mechanical and thermal properties. For this reason, these fibers are widely used in several areas, such as aircraft and automotive industries. Solution blow spinning (SBS) and electrospinning can be used to produce carbon nanofibers, but SBS is a simpler, cheaper, and effective method to produce micro and nanofibers from polymer solutions. In this work, different SBS conditions were studied to obtain carbon nanofibers using a Box-Behnken experimental design. The physicochemical and thermal properties of the carbon nanofibers were evaluated, as well as their structural properties. The factorial design results indicated that decreasing the PAN mass concentration in solution and increasing the injection rate decreased the nanofiber diameter. After heat treatment, the carbon nanofiber diameter further decreased, ranging from 153.2 (SD: 23.3) with 6% PAN to 369.0 (SD:60.0) with 10% PAN. The carbon nanofibers showed (ID/IG) ratio between 1.17 and 1.20 and crystal size from 16.4 to 16.0 nm for PAN mass concentrations from 6 to 10%, which agrees with the literature. No structural and physico-chemical alterations were observed in the carbon nanofibers, which allows them to be applied in several sectors, such as batteries and capacitors.