A low-cost rout for modification the polyacrylontrile（PAN） precursor fibers was developed.The approach involved pretreatment PAN precursor fibers with UV irradiation for various periods of time before the fibers were stabilized.The effect of UV irradiation on the chemical structure,orientation factor,density,crystallite size and morphology of the fibers in the process of stabilization was characterized by use of fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）,float-sink procedure,X-ray diffraction（XRD）,scanning electron microscope（SEM）,respectively.The results showed that UV irradiation could increase the density of the fibers in stabilization process.FTIR analysis indicated that the cyclization of nitrile groups was initiated at room temperature by UV irradiation.The transformation of C≡N groups to C=N ones was accelerated in the process of stabilization.The orientation factor of irradiated fibers was also increased.The crystallite size was decreased at first and increased later,and the better irradiation time of UV was 3 min according to the XRD test.SEM analysis indicated that irradiation could decrease the internal and surface defects of the stabilized fibers treated at 300 ℃.
Different doses of electron beam was imposed on the polyacrylonitrile（PAN） precursor fibers before the fibers were stabilized. The effect of electron beam irradiation on the chemical structure, crystallite size of PAN precursor fibers and density, oxygen content, transverse section morphology of the stabilized fibers in the stabilization process were characterized by the use of fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, float- sink procedure, elemental analysis and scanning electron microscope（SEM）, respectively. The results showed that the extent of cyclization was increased and the crystallite size was decreased. We found that electron beam irradiation could accelerate the cyelization reaction and stabilization reaction in the stabilization process through density test and elemental analysis. We also found that the effect of 200 kGy electron beam irradiated fibers with the stabilization time of 75 min was better than that of the original stabilized fibers with 90 min. These results demonstrate that electron beam irradiation can shorten the stabilization time.
