Poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid-co-dibutyl maleate) [P(AN-co-MAA-co-DBM)] as a potential precursor of carbon material

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) copolymers are essential precursors of carbon fiber production of commercial interest. With the aim of evaluating the influence of dibutyl maleate monomer (DBM) presence in this precursor, three different terpolymers were prepared by solution polymerization: poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid-co-itaconic acid), poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid-co-vinyl acetate) and poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid-co-dibutyl maleate) and compared with a commercial precursor to produce carbon fiber. The material characterization results, obtained from FTIR, 1 H and 13 C NMR,XRD, APC, TGA, DSC, DMA, SEM, Raman Spectroscopy, and CHNSO Elementary analysis for all samples, showed: a) that synthesized terpolymers have high molar mass; b) that there was an insertion of the respective co-monomers studied; c) similar behavior events to commercial material and literature; d) that there was an increase in mechanical resistance, an increase in carbon content and an improvement in the graphitic structure of the material for terpolymers synthesized with DBM compared to the commercial sample, as well as a more homogeneous and denser microstructure for the terpolymer with DBM, when compared to other synthetic precursors and commercial sample. FTIR, 1 H and 13 C NMR, and XPS analysis confirmed the presence of DBM in the poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid-co-dibutyl maleate) chain. The results showed that the presence of monomer (DBM) in polyacrylonitrile copolymers has a high potential in obtaining carbon fiber precursors.