Novel method for carbon nanofilament growth on carbon fibers

Carbon nanofilaments were grown on the surface of microscale carbon-fibers at relatively low temperature using palladium as a catalyst to create multiscale fiber reinforcing structures with potential applications in structural composites. Employing a relatively new method, in which carbon structures are grown from fuel rich combustion mixtures on certain catalytic metals, multiscale filament structures were grown from ethylene/oxygen mixtures at 550 °C on commercial PAN and pitch carbon fibers. The filaments grew in a bimodal size distribution. Relative short, densely spaced nanofilaments (ca. 10 nm diameter), and a slightly less dense layer of larger (ca. 100 nm diameter) faster growing fibers (ca. 10 microns/hr) were found to exist together to create a unique multiscale structure. All analytical techniques employed indicated poor crystallinity of the produced filaments.Defense Threat Reduction AgencyMaster of Science Mechanical EngineeringDoctoralUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of Mechanical EngineeringAl-Haik, MarwanPhillips, JonathanLuhrs, Claudi