Fiber and a process for the manufacture thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10626523-B2
Application number	US-201615580826-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2016
Priority date	Jun 11, 2015
Publication date	Apr 21, 2020
Grant date	Apr 21, 2020

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing thermally stabilized, non-sticky and stretchable fibers, which may be further processed into intermediate carbon fibers and finally also carbon fibers. Uses of said fibers are also disclosed. Also a highly oriented intermediate carbon fiber is disclosed together with a highly oriented carbon fiber.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing a highly oriented intermediate carbon fiber, comprising the following steps:
a. providing cellulose and/or a cellulose derivative,
b. providing lignin and/or a lignin derivative,
c. dissolution of the cellulose and/or cellulose derivative and the lignin and/or lignin derivative followed by subsequent mixing thus providing a dope,
d. performing a solution spinning of the dope to a precursor material,
e. performing a stabilization on the precursor material at a temperature from about 100 to about 450° C. at a residence time of from 10 to 180 minutes, thus providing a thermally stabilized, non-sticky and stretchable fiber, and
f. performing a stretch-pre-carbonization, including stretching and pre-carbonization, on the thermally stabilized, non-sticky and stretchable fiber at temperatures from about 200 to about 1300° C., thus providing a highly oriented intermediate carbon fiber,
wherein said stretching is carried out at elongations between 25% and 1000%.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the precursor material containing cellulose and/or cellulose derivative and lignin and/or lignin derivative, has a content of lignin and/or lignin derivative at a maximum amount of 99 wt %.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the precursor material contains from about 1% to 99% lignin or lignin derivative.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein heating rates up to 200° C./min are applied in the stabilization step.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the molecular orientation in the fiber is realized by stretching the fiber during the stretch-pre-carbonization up to 10-fold at a temperature below 1300° C.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stretch-pre-carbonization is performed during a residence time from 1 to 90 minutes.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stabilization is performed at a temperature from about 200 to about 350° C.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the precursor material contains from 10% to 60% lignin or lignin derivative.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the molecular orientation in the fiber is realized by stretching the fiber during the stretch-pre-carbonization up to 10-fold at a temperature below 1100° C.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stretch-pre-carbonization is carried out at temperatures from 250 to 1100° C.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stretch-pre-carbonization is performed during a residence time from 3 to 60 minutes.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein said stretching is carried out at elongations between 25% and 500%.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stabilization is performed at a temperature from about 220 to about 300° C.

14. The method according to claim 1 wherein the stabilization is performed for a residence time of 20-80 minutes.

Assignees

• Stora Enso Oyj

Inventors

• Garoff Niklas
• Protz Robert
• Erdmann Jens
• Ganster Johnannes
• Lehmann André

Classifications

• D02J1/22

  Stretching or tensioning, shrinking or relaxing, e.g. by use of overfeed and underfeed apparatus, or preventing stretch (stretch spinning D01D5/12) · CPC title

• D01F9/16 Primary

  from products of vegetable origin or derivatives thereof, e.g. from cellulose acetate (D01F9/18 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C08L97/005

  Lignin · CPC title

• D01F2/00

  Monocomponent artificial filaments or the like of cellulose or cellulose derivatives; Manufacture thereof · CPC title

• D01D5/06

  Wet spinning methods {(D01D5/0046 takes precedence)} · CPC title