| During the past two decades, carbon fibers and carbon fiber reinforced plastics have found a variety of high-tech applications. However, future applications of these two classes of materials may require the development of lower-cost yet high-performance materials with unique physical properties. Semiconducting carbon fibers (herein referred to as quasi-carbon fibers, QCFs) and their composites represent a good example of these types of materials.;QCFs in the current work were prepared by pyrolyzing polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor at a temperature range from 400 to 950;Electrical resistivity values of these QC fibers covered a very wide spectrum, ranging from 10;The QC fiber reinforced PAN matrix composites were fabricated to study the fiber/matrix interactions at the composite interface. Experimental results revealed that both crystallinity and thermal behavior of the PAN matrix in composites were affected by such interactions. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) combined with the mechanical property study suggested that good adhesion existed at the interface between the PAN matrix and the fibers obtained with a lower HTT.;Semiconducting quasi-carbon/quasi-carbon (QC/QC) composites which were derived from different composite precursors have also been investigated to exhibit varying thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. The QC fiber was superior to the OXPAN fiber as a reinforcement in achieving a more compact structure, higher strength and stiffness of the composite. Thus, QC fiber-derived semiconducting composites would be distinguished materials for a wide range of device applications. |
