NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION OF CARBON-FIBER BY MIRAGE-FTIR SPECTROSCOPY

Carbon fiber, being black (high absorptivity) material, is difficult t o analyze by the conventional infrared (IR) techniques. Probably due t o this fact, most of the studies reported in literature have been rest ricted to the thermal degradation of polyacrylonitrile-based fibers on ly. In the present work, we have used a recently developed mirage-FTIR technique for recording the IR spectra of carbon fibre at different s tages of production, right from the precursor to final product. A stud y of microstructural/chemical changes occuring not only provides the i nformation on structure but also demonstrates an unusual and highly te chnical industrial application. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.