| Carbon carbon (C-C) composites are an unique class of materials with high specific strength and specific stiffness, good thermal and electrical properties. However, traditional C-C composites have been limited to uni-directional or multi-directional long continuous fiber reinforcements. High processing costs and the inability to process complicated moldable parts have severely restricted the application scope of C-C composites. One of the objectives of this research was to develop moldable C-C composites using economical short fiber reinforcements with acceptable properties. The short carbon fiber reinforced C-C composites were processed which exhibited strengths up to 100 MPa. The strength is sufficient for several applications such as in automotive pistons, valves, cylinder liner, etc. The oxidation behavior of these composites was characterized. The activation energies for oxidation was found to be between 30 and 40 Kcal/mol, which are comparable with conventional C-C composites. Thus, combined with low costs and excellent moldability these materials can find numerous commercial applications.;Polymeric carbons were obtained by pyrolyzing precursor polymers below 1000;The catalytic chemical vapor deposited carbon whisker (CCVD) grown below 1000... |
