Inorganic fibers

General remarks Inorganic fibers, both metal and non metal ones, are more resistant, more rigid, have an higher melting point and are more heat resistant than traditional fibers. They are also totally uninflammable, but, except for the metal ones, they are fragile. Their textile importance is also limited, whereas they are widely used as reinforcement in composite materials. They are usually excellent in high temperatures and in a corrosive surrounding. Real fibers with an area transversal section lower than 0,00 mm! and a thickness lower than 0,! mm are carried out. "e can get them as wiskers #$ mono crystalline materials% and as real fibers, both continuous and cut in cluster. Their diameter changes from to & nm, but other ones are much thicker, like the ones got through vapor deposition on the fibers, such as borate fibers and silicon carbide fibers #&00'& 0 n%. The diameter of the fiber is critical compared to its resistance( like all fragile materials their resistance increases when their transversal si)e reduces. *ibers in cluster can be produced directly or through the cutting of continuous filaments. "e can get them as wadding #wool%, mat and felt. +ontinuous fibers are carried out with a process of spinning through melting, that can be used with fibers that come out from melting materials #glass, mineral fibers%. +arbon fibers and ceramic ones are made from organic fibers, and these precursors are thermically degraded. ,recursors are prepared with the same technologies used to prepare conventional organic fibers. "hen used as a reinforcement, yarn with -000'&!000 fibers is used #it is shortly called -'&! .%. *or some fibers we need +/0 #+hemical /apor 0eposition% and a substrate of highly melting fibers( 1I+ or 23+ on borate, TI4, 1I+ on carbon.

Inorganic *ibers +5R264 G7511 89T57#8T*% 26R64 1I7I+5 #1i+% 1I7I+5 +5R2I09 +9R58I+ #+9R% #2*% #+*% #G*%

5bbreviation

#1i+%

.ind of *iber density #g:cm-% 8in Glass !, +arbon 1i+ !, 8ax !,;! &,<; -, -,= 8in -300 !,& !000 &!00 8ax 3 00 !000 -<00 &300

Tenacity #8,a% 8in <0 <000 !00 -30 8ax <0 !30 3!0 300 <00

8odulus G,a

6xides -,=

Textile glass fibers (CF) Glass fibers are mostly used as reinforcement of composite materials, whose performances, together with the low cost of fiber, make up for their negative sides, such as, for instance, the high weight. The use of this kind of fibers in more proper textile areas, such as fittings, in order to exploit its good fireproof, is still limited.

+hemical composition and properties ,roperties of glass fibers are bound to the chemical composition of the mixture, but they are also influenced by the spinning way.

>sually, they are divided into( >se Type of Glass 8ultipurpose fibers glass 9, 5cid resistant fibers

glass 5, +, +R, 5lkali resistant fibers glass R, 1 ?igh strength fibers glass R, 1 *ibers with good dieletric properties glass 0.

Carbon fibers (CF)

+arbon fibers, that appeared on the market in &=;0, are produced through alteration of organic fibers #rayon, acrylics etc% or from remainings of petroleum or tar distillation. The first ones are called +arbon',an, the others, +arbon from pitch #pitch%. +arbon fibers can be considered as a transition between inorganic fibers and organic fibers. The rigid structure of the strip cyclic links molecules or ladder ones of the carbon @,54 or carbon'pitch fibers has suggested how to create aromatic organic molecules to get fibers with high performances. +arbon fibers, discovered in &A<= by 9dison, have been commercially produced only since &=;0 following a process put right by "illiam "att for Royal 5ircraft in >.. They represent the separation point between organic and inorganic fibers, being produced

through modification of organic fibers or organic pitch. +arbon fibers, together with glass fibers, have started the era of composite materials. +arbon fibers in particular have started the era of advanced composite materials, that were firstly used in the army and in aeronautics and later in automobile industry and in free time. +arbon fibers can be produced through heat treatment and pyrolysis of different polymeric precursors such as rayon, polyacrylonitrile, aromatic polyamide, phenolic resin etc. Recently carbon fibers and graphite fibers gotten from pitchy materials have been introduced. The words Bgraphite fibersC are improperly used, because these fibers donDt come out from graphite, but from heat treatments over !000E+ of carbon fibers, when the carbon atoms place in a way similar to the graphite structure.

+arbon fibers from ,54

The precursor that has really started the era of carbon fibers #&=;0% is the polyacrilonitrile fiber, ,54, characteri)ed by an adeFuate chemical composition, by a particular molecular orientation and by a specific morphology. The chemical composition is important in order to moderate the exothermicity of the cycle reaction of @+4, &Akcal:mass, heated to !!0'!;0E+ for some hours. The result of the cycle reaction is a black colored, glow'proof material, oxidi)ed ,54, that owns modest mechanical properties, and that is used for protective clothes, for glow'proof cotton'wool or in carbon'carbon composites, and for breaks reFuiring high performances #planes, race cars and high speed trains%. The following carboni)ation process #300'&000E+% is usually made in inert atmosphere or vacuum @sealed and it removes atoms from the structure and it develops the graphitic structure. *rom 300 to &000E+, ?+4, 4?- and 4! develop, also +6, +6! and ?!6 can develop, according to the Fuantity of 6! that the oxidi)ed precursor has bound when treated in air at a temperature of !!0'!;0E+. 5fter the treatment at &000E+, a fiber contains more than =0G of carbon and about G of nitrogen. It is very important to check the retraction of the fiber during the cycle phase at !!0' !;0E+, because in this phase the alignment of the molecular segment along the fiber is fixed and the final elastic forms depends form this orientation. The molecular orientation given to the original acrylic fiber influences the toughness and the elastic form of the resulting fiber. 5n excessive orientation is negative because it brings surface and internal faults in the fiber.

+arbon'pitch fibers

,itch, or tar residue, is the residue of the tar or petroleum distillation and it is made of thousands of aromatic hydrocarbons with a molecular weight from !00 to A00, which form a multi eutectic system with softening temperatures between 0 and -00E+, that are by far lower than the melting temperatures of pure aromatic components. 5 mesophase is formed through a thermic treatment between 300 and 3 0E+. It is liFuid crystals with a molecular order that is intermediate between that of crystals and of liFuids. The molecules of the mesophase are oriented along the fiber by the flowing gradient during the extrusion from a capillary. The process of carbon fiber production through pitch mesophase is reduced to essentials as follows( the pitch or tar precursor is thermically treated over - 0E+ to be converted in mesophase containing both phases, the isotropic and anisotropic one. 5fter extrusion, at about -A0E+, the isotropic phase is made unmeltable by thermofixing in air at a temperature that is lower than the softening point at about -00E+. *iber is finally carboni)ed at &000E+ or it is treated at temperatures over !000E+ in order to produce graphite fibers with a highly elastic form. The main advantages of this process are that no filament tension is reFuested during the carboni)ing and graphiti)ing phases and times of the individual phases are much shorter than those of the ,54 process.

The structural analysis of the fiver shows that the carbon layers are parallel to the fiber axis.

In the following table the main properties of carbon fibers made from ,54 and pitch are syntheti)ed.

+haracteristics Tenacity #Gpa% &,A'<,0 &,3'-,0 8odulus #Gpa% !-0' 30 &30'A!0

*ibers from ,54

*ibers from pitch

9longation at 2reak #G%

0,3'!,3 0,!'&,0ensity #g:cm-% &,< '&,= !,0'!,!

CERAMIC FIBERS
+eramic fibers are mostly used as refractory fibers in uses over &000E+ and are characteri)ed by a polycrystalline structure rather than amorphous. Refractory ceramic fibers are mostly used for thermal insulation at high temperatures and to make special composites. They are very expensive fibers because only a small Fuantity is produced, and they are used in particular fields such as aerospace. 8aterials used are boron, silica, carbide, alumina, )irconia.

They show as filaments or very thin fibers #wiskers%Hbigger monofilaments or multifilaments can be used in textile transformation #yarn, ropes, parts of composites%. Their characteristics are bound to thin structure of the material, according to the kind of fiber. *inally, there are more sophisticated kinds of fibers, with a basis of borate, carbide, silicon nitrure and borate nitrure.

Properties *ibers act according to their shape and thickness. The thinnest they are, the most flexible they are and they are used for light and soft refractories #the thicknest fibers give problems of skin irritation due to the penetration of these very thin fibers%. "hen fibers have a diameter over &mm, they can be considered as transformable fibers according to the textile system.

"iskers ar absolutely the most resistant #modulusI;00Gpa, tenacity I!0000 8pa%.

Chemical properties Refractory fibers are low chemical reactive. Their best characteristics are their oxidation resistance at high temperatures and their inactivity towards corrosion in composites with metal matrix. 2oron fibers suffer oxidation, so they are used with a surface cover gotten through vapor deposition.

Boron fibers
26R64 fiber is gotten through deposition of boron microgranules on a tungsten or carbonate yarn #diameter &!'&< micron%.

2oron is a metal known for its exceptional resistance and form( even if it is very light as a

filament, it has a triple resistance and a double form in comparison to steel. 5mong reinforcement fibers, borate is the only one that is exceptionally resistant to traction, compression and flexion, together with high form and low density

The physical'mechanical characteristics of 26R64 are(

' 0ensity #g:cm-% !, A ' Tenacity :+4:dtex%&-,; ' 9longation at 2reak #G% 0,A ' 8elting ,oint #E+% !000

2esides the exceptional resistance to traction and temperature, boron fiber produced by 5/+6 shows good resistance to acids and alkali, to organic solvents, to ultra'violet rays and to micro organisms. It is a very particular fiber, gotten with sophisticated technologies and a complex production, so its cost is high. 6n the other hand 26R64 is almost only used in composites that suffer very high temperatures.