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Highlights • Poly(acrylonitrile- co -methylacrylate) was synthesized as a melt processible carbon fiber precursor. • Thermal and rheological analysis confirmed flow characteristics suitable for melt-spinning. • The precursor fibers were thermally stabilized by assistance of electron-beam irradiation without re-melting and fusion. • The mechanical properties of resulting-carbon fiber were 1.37 GPa in tensile strength and 110 GPa in modulus, respectively. Abstract Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) copolymers containing varying amounts of methyl acrylate (MA), P(AN- co -MA), were synthesized as a melt-spinnable precursor of carbon fibers. The rheological properties of P(AN- co -MA) with MA content of 15 mol% at 190 °C proved to be suitable for melt-spinning and the PAN fiber was spun from an extruder. In order to prevent remelting and fusion of the fibers in the stabilization process, electron-beam irradiation of over 1500 kGy was used and the melt-spun PAN fibers were successfully converted to stabilized PAN fibers by thermal treatment up to 250 °C. Finally, carbon fibers (CFs) were produced by pyrolysis of the stabilized PAN fibers. The mechanical properties of the resulting-CFs were evaluated; the tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break were 1.37 ± 0.2 GPa, 110 ± 11.1 GPa, and 1.27 ± 0.28%, respectively. These results suggest the possibility of utilizing melt-spinning as a cost-efficient method for fabrication of carbon fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract In the manufacturing process of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber (CF), stabilization, is crucial to both process efficiency and the mechanical properties of CFs. Highly effective stabilization was successfully demonstrated by plasma-assisted thermal treatment (PT) on electron-beam irradiated PAN fibers. The method was remarkably efficient to prepare carbonizable fibers within a total stabilization time of 13.3 min, which includes electron beam irradiation (3.3 min) and PT time (10 min). We believe that such a fast stabilization was achieved by coaction of diffusive and reactive oxygen species from atmospheric plasma source with oxygen-favored radicals introduced by pre-treatment of electron-beam irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]