The carbon fiber forming raw material is a carbon fiber forming raw material (Z) as a prepreg including sizing agent-coated carbon fibers and a thermosetting resin or a carbon fiber forming raw material (Y) as a forming material that includes sizing agent-coated carbon fibers and has a woven fabric form or a braid form. The sizing agent includes components (A) and (B). The component (A) is an epoxy compound having two or more epoxy groups or two or more types of functional groups. The component (B) is one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of a tertiary amine compound, a tertiary amine salt, a quaternary ammonium salt, a quaternary phosphonium salt, and a phosphine compound. The component (B) is contained in an amount of 0.1 to 25 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of the component (A).

The invention is directed to carbon fibers having high tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. The invention also provides a method and apparatus for making the carbon fibers. The method comprises advancing a precursor fiber through an oxidation oven wherein the fiber is subjected to controlled stretching in an oxidizing atmosphere in which tension loads are distributed amongst a plurality of passes through the oxidation oven, which permits higher cumulative stretches to be achieved. The method also includes subjecting the fiber to controlled stretching in two or more of the passes that is sufficient to cause the fiber to undergo one or more transitions in each of the two or more passes. The invention is also directed to an oxidation oven having a plurality of cooperating drive rolls in series that can be driven independently of each other so that the amount of stretch applied to the oven in each of the plurality of passes can be independently controlled.

A graphene fiber and a preparation method thereof, where the graphene fiber is a composite fiber of metal nanowire doped graphene fiber, and principal components of the composite fiber are graphene and metal nanowires, a mass ratio of metal nanowires is 0.1%-50%, the graphene is in a form of sheet, and both the metal nanowires and graphene sheets are arranged in parallel along an axial direction of the graphene fiber. The metal nanowire doped graphene fiber is a new type of a high performance multi-functional fiber material, which achieves a significant improvement in electrical conductivity of graphene fibers through doping of metal nanowires and meanwhile demonstrates excellent tensile strength and toughness. The metal nanowire doped graphene fiber has great potential application value in a plurality of fields, for example, it is used as a lightweight flexible wire.

Disclosed is a continuous carbon fiber/thermoplastic resin fiber composite yarn and a method for manufacturing the same, wherein the carbon fiber composite yarn provides excellent mechanical properties, is light in weight, moldable, and has excellent impregnating ability. In particular, the composite yarn is provided with these superior properties by including a continuous carbon fiber having excellent mechanical properties, a thermoplastic resin fiber, and the like, and by using a false twist processing machine or a solution bath, and the like in order to manufacture the composite yarn.

Sizing agent-coated carbon fibers includes: a sizing agent including an aliphatic epoxy compound (A) and at least containing an aromatic epoxy compound (B1) as an aromatic compound (B); and carbon fibers coated with the sizing agent, wherein the sizing agent-coated carbon fibers have an (a)/(b) ratio of 0.50 to 0.90 where (a) is a height (cps) of a component at a binding energy (284.6 eV) assigned to CHx, CC, and CC and (b) is a height (cps) of a component at a binding energy (286.1 eV) assigned to CO in a C.sub.1s core spectrum of a surface of the sizing agent applied onto the carbon fibers analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy using AlK.sub.1,2 as an X-ray source at a photoelectron takeoff angle of 15.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a graphene fiber and a graphene fiber manufactured thereby, comprising the following steps: a) preparing a dispersion liquid by dispersing graphene with a surfactant in a solvent; b) preparing a composite fiber by mixing the dispersion liquid with a polymer solution, wet spinning and drying same; and c) removing polymers by heat-treating or treating the composite fiber with strong acid. The graphene fiber manufactured by the method has superior electric and mechanical properties, is flexible, and can be utilized as a storage medium for energy, hydrogen, etc. due to porosity from having a wrinkled structure.

Fibers sized with a coating of amorphous polyetherketoneketone are useful in the preparation of reinforced polymers having improved properties, wherein the amorphous polyetherketoneketone can improve the compatibility of the fibers with the polymeric matrix.

Carbon opals, a form of colloidal crystal, are composed of ordered two-dimensional or three-dimensional arrays of Monodispersed Starburst Carbon Spheres (MSCS). Methods for producing such carbon opals include oxidizing as-synthesized MSCS, for example by heating in air, to increase surface charge. Such oxidation is believed to decrease settling rates of a colloidal suspension, enabling formation of an ordered colloidal crystal. Inverse opals, composed of any of a wide variety of materials, and based on a carbon opal template, have a reciprocal structure to a carbon opal. Inverse opals are formed by methods including: forming a carbon opal as described, impregnating a desired material into pores in the carbon opal to produce a hybrid structure, and removing the carbon portion from the hybrid structure.

A molecularly imprinted polymer sensor for sensing a target molecule includes (a) a porous polymer film that is molecularly imprinted with a homolog of the target molecule and includes a conductive polymer having resistance sensitive to binding with the target molecule and a structural polymer providing porosity to the polymer film, and (b) interdigitated electrodes, located on a surface of the polymer film, for measuring a change in the resistance to sense said binding.

Nanotube films and articles and methods of making the same are disclosed. A conductive article or a substrate comprises at least two unaligned nanotubes extending substantially parallel to the substrate and each contacting end points of the article but each unaligned relative to the other, the nanotubes providing a conductive pathway within a predefined space.