884691

research-article2019
JEF0010.1177/1558925019884691Journal of Engineered Fibers and FabricsTang et al.

Original Article

Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics

Preparation and properties of lightweight Volume 14: 1­–9

© The Author(s) 2019
https://doi.org/10.1177/1558925019884691
DOI: 10.1177/1558925019884691
carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal journals.sagepub.com/home/jef

field insulation materials for

high-temperature furnace

Bo Tang1,2, Ying Wang2,3, Li Hu4, Lianbin Lin4, Chenxi Ma4,

Chongyin Zhang4, Yonggen Lu1, Kai Sun3 and Xinfeng Wu2,3

Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to make lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composite with low density and low thermal
conductivity for high-temperature furnace. Lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal field insulation materials
were prepared by the process method of needle punching—molding curing high-temperature graphitization. The results
show that the long carbon fiber in the carbon/carbon fiber composite forms a three-dimensional structure of X-Y-Z
with a density of 0.16 ± 0.02 g/cm3, which makes the composite material have excellent thermal insulation performance
at high temperature. The thermal conductivity of the carbon/carbon fiber composite at 2000°C is only 0.38 W/(m·K),
and the impurity element content is only 19.09 ppm. The method of needle-punching-forming-felt high-temperature
graphitization can provide some suggestions for the preparation of the lightweight long carbon fiber composite.

Keywords
Carbon fiber, carbon/carbon fiber composite, needle-punching-forming-felt, graphitization, thermal conductivity

Date received: 12 July 2019; accepted: 3 October 2019

Introduction field performance without compromising the overall per-

Carbon fiber has excellent high temperature resistance,
especially in the high-temperature environment above
1500°C, under the protection of inert gas.1,2 Materials
such as steel, silicates, and most alloys have been melted,
while carbon fiber materials maintain excellent thermal
formance. For example, the growth of solar silicon crys-
tals needs a high temperature of 1500°C or higher, and
many high-temperature crystal treatments also need
above 1500°C. The high temperature resistance of carbon
fiber and the insulation requirements of the growth of
high-temperature crystals have led to the application of

1StateKey Laboratory for Chemical Fibers Modification and Polymer
Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua
University, Shanghai, China
2Hangzhou Vulcan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd, Hangzhou, China
3College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime
University, Shanghai, China
4Shanghai Aerospace Systems Engineering Institute, Shanghai Aerospace
Equipments Manufacturer Co., Ltd, Shanghai Engineering Research
Center of Specialized Polymer Materials for Aerospace, Shanghai, China
Corresponding authors:
Xinfeng Wu, College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai
Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China.
Email: xfwu@shmtu.edu.cn
Yonggen Lu, State Key Laboratory for Chemical Fibers Modification
and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering,
Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
Email: yglu@dhu.edu.cn

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(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics 
carbon fiber insulation materials in high-temperature
insulation environments, namely carbon/carbon fiber
composites. Carbon/carbon fiber composite materials
include low-density carbon/carbon insulation materials
(0.1–0.4 g/cm3)3,4 and high-density carbon/carbon mate-
rials (1.0–1.8 g/cm3).5,6 This article focuses on low-den-
sity, lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composite insulation
materials. Lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composite
insulation materials are widely used in solar polysilicon
furnace, single crystal silicon furnace, semiconductor
furnace, sapphire furnace, fiber drawing furnace, high-
end metallurgical heat treatment furnaces, as well as in
other high-temperature insulation environments.7–12
These are all due to the excellent high temperature resist-
ance, high-temperature insulation performance, and low
impurity element content of the carbon/carbon fiber
composite.
At present, lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composites
are mainly divided into two categories13–15 according to
the length of the fibers: (a) short-cut (fiber lengths in mil-
limeters, such as 3–5 mm) and (b) long-cut (fiber lengths
in centimeters, such as 10–15 cm) carbon/carbon fiber
composites. Short-cut carbon/carbon fiber composites are
mainly represented by SGL Group (Germany) and Morgan
Corporation (USA). When the lightweight carbon/carbon
fiber composite thermal field material is impregnated, the
chopped carbon fiber and the phenolic resin are first pre-
pared into a paste and then filled into a mold for solidifi-
cation molding. The advantage of this molding method is
that the step of needle punching can be omitted, and rapid
molding is relatively easy in the impregnating resin stage.
But one disadvantage is that the chopped fibers in the
formed thermal field material are homogeneous and heat
can be thermally conducted along the fiber direction, so
the thermal field insulation performance is not good.13
The long-cut carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal field
insulation material is represented by a product of Kureha
Chemical (Japan). Compared with the short-cut thermal
field insulation material, there is an X-Y-Z three-dimen-
sional structure in the felt structure. The carbon fiber felt
adopts air-laid needle-punching-forming-felt technology
in the preparation process, so the long-fiber arrangement
becomes an X-Y plane structure and X-Y plane structure
only exists in the stage of air flow forming network.
Through the needle-punching technique, there is a small
amount of carbon fiber in the Z-direction perpendicular to
the X-Y plane, thereby forming an X-Y-Z network struc-
ture. The carbon fiber in the Z-direction is interspersed in
the X-Y plane network, so that the long carbon fiber felt
becomes a three-dimensional felt structure having a
mechanical structure, thereby ensuring that it is not easily
spread by itself. Since the proportion of fibers in the
Z-direction is very low, the heat loss along the Z-direction
is small under the thermal field heat preservation condi-
tion, thereby ensuring that the insulation performance of
the overall felt is superior to the short-cut heat field insu-
lation material.
At present, researchers mainly focus on the short-cut
carbon/carbon composite insulation materials;13 there are
few studies on large-scale high-temperature-resistant car-
bon/carbon fiber composite thermal field insulation materi-
als; and there are certain technical barriers to the long-fiber
felting technology. Our team has cooperated with Hangzhou
Vulcan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd to overcome a
series of process problems and innovatively developed a set
of forming processes for preparing lightweight high-tem-
perature-resistant carbon/carbon fiber composite, namely
needle punching—molding curing high-temperature gra-
phitization. The innovation is that (a) the carbon fiber used
is 100–150 mm long, and the thermal insulation perfor-
mance of the product is better than that of the short carbon
fiber; (b) the direct use of carbon-fiber-air-laid needle-
punching-forming-felt process instead of pre-oxygen fiber-
air-laid needle-punching carbonization process reduces
process steps and avoids product shrinkage due to carboni-
zation. In addition to introducing the preparation process of
carbon/carbon fiber composite, the performance of carbon/
carbon fiber composite is characterized. It is expected to
provide some advice for the application of high-tempera-
ture equipment such as crystal growth and high-tempera-
ture heat treatment.
Experiment
Materials
The following materials were used in the experiment: car-
bon fiber (SYT45, 12K; Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber
Co., Ltd), absolute ethanol (AR; Sinopharm Chemical
Reagent Co., Ltd), and phenolic resin (PF-5408, viscosity
= 450–750 (25°C, cP), solid content = 65%, free phenol
= 9.5%–11.8%, moisture = 2.5%–4.0%; Jinan Shengquan
Group Co., Ltd).
Sample preparation
Schematic diagram of the preparation process of carbon/
carbon fiber composite thermal field insulation material in
this project is shown in Figure 1. The process is mainly
simplified into three steps: (a) soft felting, (b) forming, and
(c) graphitization, which will be explained separately.
Soft felting.  Soft felt is the determinant of thermal insulation
performance in carbon/carbon fiber composites, so the prep-
aration of soft felt is one of its core technologies. The soft
felting of this project includes carbon fiber filament cutting,
air laying, and acupuncture into felt. The length and type of
the fiber directly affect the thermal insulation properties of
the prepared carbon/carbon fiber composite. In this article,
the length and types of fibers are not considered for the time
Tang et al. 3
Figure 1.  Schematic diagram of the preparation process of carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal field insulation material.
being. The sample mainly includes the following key steps
in the preparation process: (a) carbon fiber filaments (100–
150 mm) are directly used as the felt raw materials, avoiding
the occurrence of high-temperature shrinkage phenomenon,
that is, the shrinkage phenomenon of the pre-oxygen fiber as
a raw material in the high-temperature carbonization pro-
cess does not occur; (b) in the felting process, the fiber
alignment anisotropy X-Y plane to Z-direction fiber fraction
ratio is (50–250):1, and the felt body weight is 500–900 g/
m2, the felt thickness is 10 mm, and the felt width is
>1500 mm. The density a of the Z-direction fibers is con-
trolled by the density of the needle plate, thus ensuring that
the density of the Z-direction fibers is uniform and main-
tained at a lower quantity. The heat is easily transferred
along the axial direction of the fiber, and the anisotropy can
ensure less heat transfer in the Z-direction, thereby ensuring
superior thermal insulation properties of the carbon/carbon
fiber composite.
Forming.  The soft felt needs to be cut into a certain shape,
and then the resin is solidified before it can form a certain
shape. This project will use the phenolic-resin-impregnated
soft felt drying curing process to complete the molding pro-
cess: (a) for impregnating phenolic resin material, the car-
bon fiber felt is impregnated with phenolic resin solution.
In order to ensure that the viscosity of the phenolic resin is
moderate, to fully impregnate the carbon fiber, the phenolic
solution and ethanol are mixed to form a phenolic ethanol
solution, and the solid content of the phenolic solution is
controlled to 30%–40%. The mass ratio of carbon fiber felt
to phenolic resin is 1:(1–1.5). The liquid impregnating
agent calculated by the ratio is immersed in the blank mate-
rial at room temperature, and the spray immersion must be
uniform; (b) for drying, the impregnated carbon fiber felt is
placed in a vacuum apparatus by means of a negative pres-
sure, and the ethanol is absorbed and recovered, and the
ethanol content is controlled to be 5% or less. The dried
sample is hung on a wire mesh stand for storage at a tem-
perature below 30°C; (c) for molding and pressing curing,
the release paper is pasted in the mold, and the impregnated
green material is neatly loaded into the mold, and then the
mold is placed in a 30-t press for one-time forming press-
ing. The sample is pressure-cured, the curing temperature is
raised from room temperature to 175°C, and the curing
time is 3–6 h. It is recommended to raise from normal tem-
perature to 175°C at 50°C per hour, then cool to below
50°C, and remove from the press. The plate sample can
reach 1500 mm × 1500 mm.
Graphitization. Compared with the traditional products,
this project directly eliminates the carbonization process
of the pre-oxygen felt, so the shrinkage of the product is
significantly reduced. The cured sample only needs to car-
bonize and graphitize the phenolic resin. Care must be
taken during this process to control the thickness of the
cured plate sample with a platen. The high-temperature
sintering process is followed. The solidified intermediate
sample is charged into a high-temperature sintering fur-
nace, and each intermediate product is controlled by a
high-density carbon/carbon material. At a pressure of 10–
8000 Pa, the temperature is raised from room temperature
to 400°C at 75°C per hour. Then, the temperature is raised
from 400°C to 500°C at 25°C per hour, and the tempera-
ture is kept at 500°C for 2 h. Then, the temperature is
raised to 2400°C at a heating rate of 25°C to 100°C per
hour. The temperature is kept at 2400°C for 1 h, and the
composite is purified at the high temperature. It is natu-
rally cooled to room temperature and then discharged.
Finally, the carbon/carbon composite insulation material
with low metal impurity content is prepared. The prepared
sample size can reach 1500 mm × 1500 mm, and the thick-
ness can be made to 40, 45, or 50 mm as needed.
Characterization
The internal microscopic morphology of the carbon/car-
bon fiber composite was characterized by scanning elec-
tron microscopy (SEM; S-2150; Hitachi Corp., Japan).
4 Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics 
Figure 2.  Schematic diagram of the thermal conductivity test
device.
The SEM image includes scanning in both directions: par-
allel to the plane direction and perpendicular to the plane
direction.
The content of each element in the material was deter-
mined using an American thermoelectric company’s induc-
tively coupled plasma emission spectrometer (Iris Advantage
1000, Thermo Fisher Scientific). For more details, refer to
national standard GB/T 18932.11-2002 (Inductively coupled
plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method).
The thermal conductivity (1000°C–2000°C) under var-
ious high-temperature conditions was measured by a heat
flow meter method. Schematic diagram of the thermal
conductivity test device is shown in Figure 2.
The high-temperature thermal conductivity testing sys-
tem based on heat flow meter is a standard steady-state
system according to ISO standard 8301-1991 (Thermal
insulation—determination of steady-state thermal resist-
ance and related properties—heat flow meter apparatus).
When the hot and cold surfaces above and below the tested
specimen are at constant temperature, a unidirectional
steady heat flow similar to that existing in an infinite plate
will be established in the central region of the specimen
under test and in the central region of the heat flow meas-
uring device. The equivalent thermal conductivity of the
tested sample was obtained by measuring the heat flux, the
temperature of hot and cold surfaces, and the thickness of
the sample.
The thermal conductivity calculation formula is shown
as follows
q×d
λ= (1)
T1 − T2
Figure 3.  Soft carbon fiber felt: (a) roll material; (b) unrolled
roll material.
where λ (W/(m·K)) represents the thermal conductivity,
q (W/m2) represents the heat flux measured by a heat flow
meter, and d (m) is the thickness of the sample. T1 (K) is
the hot layer temperature measured by an optical pyrome-
ter, and T2 (K) is the cold layer temperature measured by a
heat flow meter. The sample measured in this article has a
thickness of 50 mm, density of 0.16 g/cm3, and measure-
ment temperature range of 1000°C–2000°C.
Results and discussions
Characterization of carbon/carbon fiber
composites
Figure 3 shows the soft carbon fiber felt. As can be seen
from Figure 3(b), the carbon fiber soft felt can be made
50 m long. If the long-cut carbon fiber material is abun-
dantly supplied and it can be wound up to infinite thick-
ness, the carbon fiber felt can be made infinitely long and
the width can reach 1500 mm or more. Looking closely at
Figure 3(a), it can be found that there are many pinholes in
the red circles in the position where the felt is rolled up.
The presence of these pinholes ensures that the felt body is
formed as a whole without loosening, that is, the needle-
punched Z-direction fibers are formed on the felt body
Tang et al. 5
Figure 4.  Hard carbon fiber felt: (a) plate material; (b) shaped
material.
(X-Y surface). Finally, an X-Y-Z three-dimensional struc-
ture is formed, wherein the ratio of the fiber anisotropy
X-Y plane to the Z-direction fiber fraction is (50–250):1.
Its microstructure will be revealed in the SEM image
described below.
Figure 4 shows the hard carbon fiber felt (lightweight
carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal field insulation
material). It can be seen from Figure 4(a) that the hard car-
bon fiber felt sheet can be made to 1500 mm × 1500 mm,
and the sheet surface is flat. This can achieve seamless in-
panel insulation during the preparation of large-scale ther-
mal insulation material and improve the heat preservation
effect. It can be seen from the profiled part in Figure 4(b)
that the long-fiber heat-insulating thermal field material
can be used not only as a plate but also as a profiled part,
and the size of the profiled part can be very precise. The
surface of the profiled part can also be specially coated,
such as graphite coating, silicon carbide coating, Hf-based
anti-oxidation coating, and other coatings.16–24
The density of the carbon/carbon fiber composite pre-
pared by the solidification–graphitization of the reticular
composite felt is 0.16 ± 0.02 g/cm3, which is far lower than
that of the high-density carbon/carbon composite insulation
Figure 5.  Microtopography of hard carbon fiber felt: (a) hard
felt inner surface (parallel to the laminate); (b) hard felt section
(vertical to the laminate).
material (0.3 g/cm3). This low-density network felt struc-
ture gives the material superior thermal insulation proper-
ties, which will be described in detail below.
Microstructure characterization and thermal
conductivity analysis of carbon/carbon fiber
composites
Figure 5 shows the microtopography of hard carbon fiber
felt, that is, SEM images. Figure 5(a) shows the micro-
scopic topography of hard felt inner surface when it is par-
allel to the laminate, and Figure 5(b) shows the microscopic
topography of the hard felt section when it is vertical to the
laminate. It can be seen from Figure 5(a) that the carbon
fibers overlap in disorder, and some overlap positions are
stuck. The adhesion position is due to the carbon material
remaining after the carbonized graphitization of the
impregnated phenolic resin, so that the felt material can be
strengthened. The strength of the felt body is not easily
dissipated and is not easily deformed. As is apparent from
Figure 5(b), the carbon fibers are alternately arranged in
6 Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics 
Figure 6.  Heat transfer model in carbon/carbon fiber
composite.
layers, which is the result of uniform deposition of the car-
bon fiber felt in layers during the air-laid process in the
preparation process. It can also be seen that each layer of
carbon fiber is interlaced, but each layer is almost perpen-
dicular to the cross section and there is no carbon fiber
parallel to the cross section. The carbon fiber is very tightly
packed, and the gap is relatively small, which can prevent
the phenomenon of heat convection. This forms a very
good thermal insulation structure.
Figure 6 depicts the heat transfer model in a carbon/
carbon fiber composite. Heat transfer includes heat con-
vection, heat radiation, and heat transfer.25–27 It can be seen
from Figure 5(b) that since the carbon fibers are very
tightly packed and the voids are relatively small, the heat
convection phenomenon can be prevented. As can be seen
from Figure 5(a), the pore size between the fibers is the
size of several fibers. The diameter of the fiber is about
7 µm. Even if there is a gap, the heat convection needs to
be convected through a tortuous long transmission route.
Heat convection transmits less heat in the carbon/carbon
fiber composite. The distance of heat convection is much
higher than that of thermal radiation. Thermal radiation
transfers heat in the form of electromagnetic waves, which
transfer heat at a much higher rate than heat transfer
through heat convection.
As for the heat conduction phenomenon, it can be seen
from Figure 5(b) that each layer of the carbon fiber is
almost perpendicular to the cross section. Heat is ther-
mally conducted in the carbon fiber of each layer. So heat
is almost always conducted inside the fiber and in the fiber
axial direction. There is only a partial contact point
between the fiber layer and the layer at the position where
the layer contacts, that is, between the fibers. Even between
these contact points, electron or phonon vibration can be
Figure 7.  Thermal conductivity diagram of carbon/carbon
fiber composites.
carried out, and the path to be experienced is very long, so
the heat transferred by heat conduction is also very less.
The above description is shown in Figure 6. The heat con-
duction path is relatively tortuous. Most carbon fibers are
perpendicular to the direction of heat flow, and there are
very few carbon fibers parallel to the direction of heat
flow. Heat transfer is difficult to pass directly through the
carbon fiber felt.
It can be seen from the above analysis that the heat
transfer by heat convection and heat conduction is very
less; the main ways of heat transfer is heat radiation and
heat transfer modes. Under high-temperature inert or vac-
uum conditions, heat transfer is mainly based on heat radi-
ation. Indirect radiation exists during thermal radiation. At
the same time, indirect radiation can radiate in the direc-
tion of heat transfer, further offsetting part of heat transfer.
The distance of thermal conduction through fibers is much
higher than that of thermal radiation. In the case of the
same heat transfer speed, short distance plays a leading
role, so thermal radiation plays a major role.
Figure 7 depicts the thermal conductivity picture of car-
bon/carbon fiber composites in the high-temperature envi-
ronment of above 1000°C. In the high-temperature
environment, as the temperature increases, the thermal
radiation of the carbon/carbon fiber composite increases,
and thereby the thermal conductivity increases. The ther-
mal conductivity increases from 0.12 (1000°C) to 0.13
(1100°C), 0.15 (1200°C), 0.18 (1400°C), 0.21 (1500°C),
0.23 (1600°C), 0.28 (1800°C), 0.33 (1900°C), and 0.38
(2000°C) W/(m·K). In the case where the Z-dimension is
constant, increasing the amount of X-Y fiber laminate by
selecting fibers having small diameter can reduce the
amount of radiant heat inside the material. At this stage, the
diameter of the carbon fiber filament is gradually reduced
from the 7-μm grade (T300 grade carbon fiber) to the 5-μm
grade (T700 grade carbon fiber), which will increase the
thermal insulation effect of the carbon fiber felt. In
Tang et al. 7
Figure 8.  Impurity element content in carbon/carbon fiber
composites.
addition, the carbon fiber having a small diameter is also
highly graphitized, and the heat resistance is improved.28,29
Analysis of impurity elements in carbon/carbon
fiber composites
In the preface analysis, it can be known that the light-
weight carbon/carbon fiber composite insulation material
is mainly used in high-temperature equipment such as
solar polysilicon furnace, single crystal silicon furnace,
semiconductor furnace, sapphire furnace, fiber drawing
furnace, and high-end metallurgical heat treatment fur-
nace. In the high-temperature crystal growth furnace, if the
thermal insulation material contains a large amount of
metal impurities, the impurities will gradually ooze in the
high-temperature environment, thereby entering the crys-
tal, which will change the structure of the crystal. For
example, in a polycrystalline silicon ingot furnace, impuri-
ties can cause p-type crystals to become n-type crystals,
and the crystals become unable to generate electricity. In
semiconductor furnaces, the control of impurity element
content is more demanding, the content of impurities in the
insulation material should not exceed 50 ppm, and even
some requirements should not exceed 20 ppm. In some
more demanding environments, the impurity element con-
tent should even be less than 5 ppm. In the fiber drawing
furnace, if the impurity element oozes too much from the
heat-insulating material, the impurities in the fiber will be
excessive, and the fiber will be broken during the stretch-
ing process, thereby reducing the production efficiency. In
a sapphire furnace, if the amount of impurities is more, it
will change the light transmittance of the sapphire, so that
the sapphire is scrapped.
Figure 8 shows impurity element content in carbon/car-
bon fiber composites. Figure 8 shows the content of 30
impurity elements in the carbon/carbon fiber composite.
As can be seen from Figure 8, the total content of 30
impurity elements is 19.09 ppm. Most of the elements are
less than 1 ppm, and even many elements are not detected.
The elements with element content greater than 1 ppm are
Ca (1.35 ppm), Fe (4.51 ppm), K (3.52 ppm), Mg (1.53
ppm), and Na (2.05 ppm). The sources of these elements
are analyzed as follows: (a) alkaline metals such as Ca, K,
Mg, and Na are abundant in nature, but the main source
may be derived from the raw material phenolic resin,
because strong alkali is often used to synthesize phenolic
resin. Therefore, when a phenolic resin is selected, a phe-
nolic resin having a less basic catalyst should be selected,
or a phenolic resin which does not use a strong metal base
as a catalyst should be selected, for example, a phenolic
resin synthesized by an organic base can be selected; (b)
the reason why the Fe element content is high may be
derived from the process of preparing the carbon fiber felt,
because the carbon fiber is in contact with a large number
of metal rolls during the air-laid needle-punching-form-
ing-felt process. In this process, a large amount of needling
is required to form a felt, and the grinding debris on the
metal roll and the metal scrap generated by the needling
cause the iron element to exceed the standard. However, it
may be derived from the drying process after the carbon
fiber soft felt is dipped. There may be a large amount of
metal shavings or metal oxides entering the composite dur-
ing this process in the drying oven. In addition, metal iron
is exposed at all times during the preparation of the com-
posite material. For example, during the pressing process
and high-temperature graphitization, the carbon fiber will
be in contact with the metal equipment, and these pro-
cesses will introduce iron at any time. Therefore, the con-
trol of iron elements is relatively large. In the whole
process, the equipment and the preparation environment
should be kept as clean as possible in the whole process,
and the metal flying chips should be reduced to reduce the
incorporation of metal iron.
However, these metal elements with high content are
not necessarily harmful elements of crystal growth in high-
temperature furnaces. It is possible that other elements
destroy crystal growth or contaminate crystals. Some
impurity elements will damage the growth of crystals even
in a small amount. What kinds of impurity elements (such
as S, P, B) are harmful to crystal growth, each crystal man-
ufacturer’s requirements are different, often as a trade
secret, and will not be detailed here.
Based on the above analysis, the impurities in the car-
bon/carbon fiber composite insulation material should be
controlled to reduce or remove the impurity element con-
tent as much as possible. At present, there are two methods
for removing impurities in the carbon/carbon fiber com-
posite thermal insulation material, one is to exude impuri-
ties from the fiber composite material by a high-temperature
heat treatment method through a long-time high tempera-
ture (>2000°C) process. In this case, the higher the tem-
perature, the longer the heat treatment time, the more the
8 Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics 
impurities bleed out, and the purer the heat-insulating
material, but this method consumes a large amount of elec-
tric energy. The other one is the chemical treatment method
in which a high-temperature furnace (>2000°C) is charged
with a fluorocarbon compound (such as chlorofluorocar-
bon) at high temperature. The chlorofluorocarbon releases
a corrosive gas at high temperature, infiltrates into the car-
bon material, and reacts with the impurity elements, par-
ticularly the metal impurities in the carbon material. The
impurity elements are then taken out to achieve the effect
of removing the impurity elements. However, at this stage,
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are subjected to
national control; many types of chlorofluorocarbons are
banned, and there are very few manufacturers in the world
who have such technology, SGL is one of them. We will
also work on this in the next step.
Conclusion
In this work, lightweight carbon/carbon fiber composite
thermal field insulation materials were prepared by the
process method of long-cut carbon fiber needle-punching-
forming-felt resin impregnation molding curing high-tem-
perature carbonization and graphitization. The microscopic
morphology, thermal conductivity, and impurity element
content of carbon/carbon fiber composites were studied.
So the following conclusions can be obtained:
1. A complete set of processes for preparing light-
weight carbon/carbon fiber composite thermal
field insulation materials is formed.
2. The direct needle-punching felt technology of car-
bon fiber reduces the carbonization process of the
traditional pre-oxidation felt and improves the pro-
duction efficiency. In addition, the carbon fiber
material has a wide range of sources and can be
purchased from domestic manufacturers, and it is
no longer restricted by the raw material source of
the pre-oxidized wire.
3. The long fiber is used to prepare the carbon fiber
soft felt, and the prepared carbon/carbon fiber
composite material realizes the fiber anisotropy,
which can significantly reduce the thermal conduc-
tivity of the composite material in one specific
direction (perpendicular direction). The thermal
conductivity at 2000°C is only 0.38 W/(m·K).
4. The use of long fibers reduces fiber breakage, and
high-temperature graphitization technology greatly
reduces the content of impurities in the carbon/car-
bon fiber composite thermal field insulation mate-
rial, which can be applied to the semiconductor
field and other high-end equipments.
The preparation and performance of lightweight carbon/
carbon fiber composite insulation materials will provide
some advice for its application in crystal growth furnaces
and other high-temperature insulation environments.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
The work was supported by the Project Funded by China
Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M611757), Shanghai
Science and Technology Talent Planning Project (19QB1402200),
the Special Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (51871146, 51803119 and 51771108), the Capacity
Improvement Project for Municipal Universities in Shanghai by
Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (19040501800),
Chenguang Program supported by Shanghai Education
Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education
Commission (18CG56) and the Innovation Program of Shanghai
Municipal Education Commission (2019-01-07-00-10-E00053).
ORCID iD
Xinfeng Wu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-8272
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