What’s carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polymers?

Carbon fiber (CF) is made from organic fibers through high-temperature carbonization in an inert atmosphere. It has high strength, high specific modulus, excellent thermal properties and chemical stability, as well as damping, shock absorption and noise reduction. It is an excellent reinforcement material and widely used in carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic polymers.

Compared with traditional thermoset composite materials, thermoplastic composite materials have the advantages of short molding cycle, low toxicity of chemical components, high toughness, high impact resistance and damage tolerance, long prepreg storage period, and strong mass production capacity. Thermoplastic composite materials with CF as reinforcement combine the performance advantages of CF and thermoplastic resin, and do not undergo chemical cross-linking after molding. They can be melted and re-molded twice, which facilitates the recovery and recycling of materials and solves the problem of thermosetting CF materials. Disposal issues after expiration of use.

In recent years, high-performance CF composite materials based on thermoplastic resins have developed rapidly and are widely used in aerospace, automotive lightweighting, military and national defense, sports, oilfield chemicals, wind turbine blades and other fields.

In the past few decades, the research focus on CF-reinforced thermoplastic composites has focused on material properties, modification treatments, interface structure design, and molding processes. Interface modification treatments can improve the interfacial bonding between CF and the thermoplastic matrix. The CF Reinforcement can give composite materials better mechanical properties, high resistance to heat, wear and corrosion, and better dimensional stability. In the past few decades, the rapid development of thermoplastic composite materials and molding processes has made it possible to mass-produce complex parts, and can also be used for high-performance materials and composite structural components.

Future development trends

1) Production cost has always been one of the important factors restricting the large-scale use of CF-reinforced thermoplastic composites. CF reinforced thermoplastic composite materials used to be used as expensive high-end high-performance materials. In recent years, with the maturity of CF production technology and the increase in output, the constraints of production costs on material development have gradually weakened. Inexpensive thermoplastic resins such as PP and PE are also expected to be mass-produced and used as matrix materials for composite materials. CF-reinforced thermoplastic composite materials will gradually expand into more new industries and fields such as automobiles, home appliances, construction, and municipal transportation.

2) Long fiber reinforced and continuous CF reinforced thermoplastic composite materials can make the materials have higher strength and modulus. The related material preparation processes and key structural forming technologies and equipment are all hot spots and focuses of future research.

3) The performance, structural design, molding processing and material component connection technology of CF reinforced thermoplastic composite plates and large structural parts are also the focus and hot spots of future research.

4) The research on the regulation of the interface structure between CF and the matrix and related mechanisms is not yet complete and needs further exploration.

5) The thermoplastic resin matrix is conducive to the recovery and recycling of CF. In the process of composite material recycling, how to improve the recycled CF through process and technical conditions, enhance the performance of thermoplastic composite materials, and achieve high-value recycling of composite materials , is one of the focuses of future research.