A novel poly[acrylonitrile-co-(3-ammoniumcarboxylate-butenoic acid-methylester)]copolymer for carbon fiber precursor

A novel bifunctional comonomer 3-ammoniumcarboxylate-butenoic acid-methyl ester (ACBM) was synthesized for preparing poly[acrylonitrile-co-(3-ammoniumcarboxylate-butenoic acid-methyl ester)] [P(AN-co-ACBM)] copolymer as a carbon fiber precursor. Differential scanning calorimetry results show that the P(AN-co-ACBM) exhibits a significantly improved stabilization performance compared with polyacrylonitrile (PAN), such as lower cyclization temperature and smaller rate of heat release, which is mainly attributed to the initiation of ACBM through an ionic cyclization mechanism. Simultaneously, the rheological analysis shows that P(AN-co-ACBM) possesses better spinnability than PAN.