Synthesis of Carbon Cloth by Controlled Pyrolysis of Rayon Cloth for Aerospace and Advanced Engineering Applications

Carbon cloth was synthesized from rayon cloth by controlled carbonization process by impregnating it with AlCl3. It was then subjected to acid, mechanical, and heat treatments respectively, in order to increase the breaking load and carbon content. Acid treatment was done using hydrochloric acid, which gave the low ash content that is required for aerospace applications. Further, mechanical flexing was done by keeping carbon cloth in between two rubber rollers to remove the adhering tar on it, to have high breaking load compared to non-fluxed carbon cloth. The carbon cloth was treated at different temperature viz 100 °C, 1000°C and 1200°C; it was interesting to observe that by increasing the temperature, the carbon content also increased slightly. However, high ash content is observed at 1200°C. So the optimum temperature of the carbon cloth is fixed at 100°C. From the data resulted from different studies, it is concluded that impregnation of rayon cloth with AlCl3 may be considered as an alternative and cost-effective method for the production of carbon cloth with good breaking load and improved carbon content that are required for aerospace engineering applications.