SEMINAR

ON
Graphene fiber : a new trend in carbon fiber

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

PRIYABRATA DAS
18MM06005
DR. KAUSHIK DAS MME MTECH 2nd SEM
IIT BBS
ASST. PROFESSOR 1
 History of Carbon fiber
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 1879- Thomas Edition baked cotton threads at high temperature to form carbon fiber
filament. It was used in first light bulb.
 1958- Roger Bacon carbonized the strands of rayon by heating. The fiber contained
only 20% carbon.
 1960- Richard Millington produced 99% carbon content fiber using rayon precursor.

Fig-1 Comparison of CF and hair Fig -2

Source- Internet Source - internet
 What is graphene fiber
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 Graphene is a 2D monolayer of carbon atoms packed in to a

honeycomb lattice.
 In 2004, existence of grapheme as first free standing 2D crystal is
confirmed.
 Graphene fiber(GF) was developed in 2011 by wet spinning of
graphene oxide(GO) liquid crystals(LC).

Fig 3- precursors for CF and GF Fig 4- spun GF

Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015 Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015
 Why Graphene fiber
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 GF has superior mechanical properties as compared to CF.

 GF is a crystalline material having soft and brittle characteristics but CF
is an amorphous material having sheets of carbon atoms half hazardly
folded together.
 In GF, grapheme layers are stacked parallel to one another in regular
fashion and bonded by weak Van der Waals force, providing soft and
brittle characteristics.
 GF has good stability against chemical and high temperature.
 Properties and end products of gf
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Table 1: properties of graphite whisker

Name of the property value
Tensile strength 130 GPa
Elastic modulus 1.1 TPa
Flexibility Notable
Electronic conductivity 108 S/M
Thermal conductivity 5000W/MK

 Graphene papers can be fabricated by sophisticated solution processing

methods.
 Graphene aerogels exhibits extreamly low density in solid states.
 Graphene can be engineered into macroscopic fibers, extremely long
range covalent crystalline nature.
 Strategies for fabrication
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 Graphene can not be melted. So neat fiber can not be created by melt spinning
process.
 Lack of entanglement of 2D grapheme eliminates throwing method which employed
in spinning for cotton threads and dry spinning used for carbon nanotubes(CNT).
 So we are left with the wet spinning process which is used for Kevlar and CNT
fibers.

Fig 5- lamellar graphite crystal platelets at the nano or sub-micro scale

Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015
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 Prerequisites for fabrication
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1. Scalable synthesis of solution processable graphene

 pristine graphene has a poor dispersibility in common solvent.
 To overcome this, functional groups are introduced onto grapheme
which gives good dispersion of graphene in solution.

2. Continuous regular alignment of graphene

 Complete alignment is achieved by pre-alligning graphene in fluid state
and then phase transformation in solid state.
 High dispersibility of graphene and high asymmetry of lyotropic liquid
crystals(LLC) spontaneously form LCs with orientation order.
 Then wet spinning can be done.
 Prerequisites for fabrication
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Fig 6(a) lamellar phase, (b) Micelle phase

3. Re-engineering of bonds among graphene building blocks

 Due to Van der Waals interaction, the performance of GF is restricted.
 So re-engineering becomes necessary to optimize GF performance.
 Graphene lc
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 2D topology of graphene favours the formation of LC due to

asymmetrical structure but challenge is dispersibility.
 To overcome the challenge, organic solvents having surface energy same
to pristine graphene is used.
 Some chemical modification also can be done to weaken interlayer
attraction between graphene layers.

Fig 7- GF production step

Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015
 Graphene lc
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 Organic solvents like dimethyl-formamide can exfoliate graphene

from graphite with aid of sonification but only stable at low
concentration.
 Chloro-sulfuric acid can directly solve graphite into graphene in
a spontaneous manner and remain stable at high concentration
upto 20mg/ml.
 Chemical functionalization enables grapheme to be processed by
solvent assisted technique .
 Precursor for fabrication
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 A single layer of Graphite oxide(GO), crystal is used as precursor

for graphene.
 Plenty of oxygen containing functional groups present on the
surface of GO.
 GO has dispersibility in water and many polar organic solvents.
 Wet spinning process flow-chart
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Extruding LCs into coagulation bath with uni-axial flow

Phase transition by coagulation with solvent exchange

Solidification by evaporating solvent

Chemical and/or thermal reduction

 wet spinning process
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 Extrusion of GO LCs through spinning pipe ensures the uniaxial

flow. The flow induced alignment shows a typical shear flow.
 Solvent exchange ensures the formation of GO liquid crystalline
gel fibers.
 During drying, GO gel fibers underwent shrinkage in radial
direction.
 wet spinning process
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Fig 8- Wet spinning process

Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015
 Parameter influencing the process
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1. Experimental
 Graphene size and distribution
 Dope concentration
 Spinning rate
 Coagulation time
 Solidification temperature

2. Structural
 Alignment degree
 Density
 Layered grain size
 Other methods
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A.Hydrothermal strategy
 It is a single crystal synthesis method where the crystalline substance
obtained from high temperature aqueous solution at high vapour
pressure.
 GO dispersions in pipelines are subjected to a hydrothermal step,
then extruded followed by drying.

B.Electro-phoretic self assembly method

 Fibers are drawn from dispersions of graphene nano ribbons.

All the mentioned processes are done for high concentration of

GO dispersion and continuous flow, which ensures alignment of
graphene sheets along fiber axis
 neat GF
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 Consists of well aligned Graphene sheets only along fiber axis.

 Carbon content- 80-99%
 Precursor- neat GO LCs
 Fabrication process- wet spinning+ chemical and/ thermal reduction
 Chemical reduction by hydriodic acid and hydrazine hydrate gives 80%
carbon.
 Thermal annealing above 800 degree raises the value upto 95%.
 Process issues and solution
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A. During reduction, elimination of oxygen functional groups

results GFs with pores, crack and poor performance. So HI can
be used as reductant to avoid this issue.

B. To solve the interconnection issue, multifunctional binders are

added. Calcium ion bridges the reduced graphene sheets by
forming co-ordinate bond with residual oxygen groups.
 Graphene composite fiber(gcf)
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GO LC ordered matrix + guests

Fig 9- Types of guests in GO LC

Ref-Materials Today Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015
 Graphene composite fiber(gcf)
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1. Biomimetic GCF
 Graphene+ polymeric composite
 Extreamly high graphene content(50%-90%)
 2D graphene create laminated structure resembles the ‘Brick and
Mortar’ layer attribute of nacre.
 Mortar(interlayer macromolecule) binds the graphene sheets together.
 High electrical conductivity and resist chemical erosion.

2. Hybridized GFs
 Nano guests including 1D metallic nanowires,CNTs,OD quantum dots
are added.
 Binary fiber of graphene and 1D silver nanowires gives higher
electrical conductivity.
 Fabrication of biomimetic gcf
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1. Host guest LC strategy

2. Building block approach
 Mechanical properties comparison
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Table 2 : mechanical properties comparison
 Improving mechanical performance
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 Stretching during wet spinning improves alignment

 Enlargement of lateral size of sheet decrease structural defect
 Combination of chemical reduction and thermal annealing should
be used.
 Copper, silver doping can be done to increase conductivity.
 Uses of GF
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A. Light weight electrical conductor for heavy current

carrying capacity
 Can be twisted into tight knots.
 Chemically reduced GF used in batteries.
 Stretchable circuits made from flexible silver doped GFs on rubber
substrate.

B. Yarn capacitor and solar cells

 Super capacitor textile can be knitted in to wearable device.
 Porus structure of spun fiber increase capacitance up to 300 mF/cm3
 Photovoltaic wire device has a high energy conversion efficiency.
 Uses of GF
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C. Smart actuator
 Moisture actuator
 Torsional motor
 Magnetic driven springs
 conclusion
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 In atomic aspect, enhancement of inter layer connection between

Graphene sheets leads to higher mechanical strength.
 By optimizing stretching ratio, spinning velocity etc strength,
conductivity can be manipulated.
 REFERENCES
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[1] Ref-Materials Today, Volume 18, Number 9 November 2015

Thank you
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