A. Madronero, POSSIBILITIES FOR THE VAPOR LIQUID-SOLID MODEL IN THE VAPOR-GROWN CARBON-FIBER GROWTH-PROCESS, Journal of Materials Science, 30(8), 1995, pp. 2061-2066
Vapour-grown carbon fibres are very promising as composite reinforcers
due to their low cost, about $ 10/kg. They are currently produced on
a laboratory scale, but to reach an industrial production volume, it w
ould be necessary to increase their final length up to the centimetre
ran ge. Current literature describes how the catalytic growth of such
short fibres is finally poisoned by the carbon-deposition pyrolytic pr
ocess, so the achievement of fibres larger than a very few millimetres
, is rather difficult. A slight change in the habitual routine product
ion process, however, it makes possible to grow this type of fibre by
an as-vapour-liquid-solid growth model, which yields grown fibres with
a very attractive length. In this model, hydrogen plays an important
role.