Application of Ionic Liquids to Create an Environmentally Friendly Process Technology for Polyacrylonitrile Fibers

摘要

On the basis of successful synthesis of polyacrylonitrile homo-polymer and copolymer in ionic liquids (ILs), dissolution of polyacrylonitrile copolymers (PAN) in different IL, rheological behavior of the solutions and the fabrication of PAN from ILs were discussed. It is clear that ILs are excellent solvents for PAN and the most important is that the ILs can be recycled easily. As ILs are composed of organic cations and inorganic anions without any molecule, the specific interactions between the macromolecular and ILs make the rheology and fabrication behavior of PAN in ILs different from that in conventional solvents. No distinct shell-core structure was formed even if the coagulation bath was composed with low fraction of IL due to the slow diffusion of ILs from the as-spun fibers. The fibers exhibit excellent mechanical properties.