Polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber has excellent performance and good industry development prospects

Polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber, also known as PAN-based carbon fiber, refers to carbon fiber products prepared from polyacrylonitrile fiber as raw material, which can be used as reinforcement for composite materials. Compared with other carbon fibers, polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fibers have the advantages of high strength, corrosion resistance, lightweight, and high temperature resistance. They can replace aluminum alloys, steel and other metal materials and are widely used in many fields. According to different properties, polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber can be divided into four types: high strength and high model, high model, general type and high strength type.

​​​​According to different types of raw fibers, carbon fiber can be divided into three types: polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber, viscose-based carbon fiber and pitch-based carbon fiber. The preparation process of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber is relatively simple and has excellent performance, accounting for nearly 90.0% of the carbon fiber market. According to the “2022-2026 Polyacrylonitrile-Based Carbon Fiber Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report released by the Industrial Research Center , the global polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber market will reach US$4.12 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%. As research continues to deepen, the application scope of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber will continue to expand, and its market size will also further increase, and is expected to exceed US$5 billion by 2025.

The raw material of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber is acrylonitrile. As a basic chemical raw material, the output of acrylonitrile is gradually increasing. From January to April 2022, my country’s acrylonitrile production reached 912,000 tons, an increase of 20.3% compared with the same period last year. Benefiting from the sufficient supply of raw materials, my country’s polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber production continues to grow. However, due to the immature production technology of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber enterprises in my country, there is still a certain gap in the quality of polyacrylonitrile raw filaments compared with overseas developed countries, resulting in overcapacity of low-end products and insufficient supply of high-end products in the industry.

The application fields of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber include aerospace, wind power generation, sports equipment, medical equipment, transportation, etc. High-model and high-strength high-model polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber is an ideal material in the aerospace field. It can be used to manufacture aircraft tails, landing gear doors, fuselage upper skin panels, etc., which can greatly improve aircraft endurance and payload. .

The major global manufacturers of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber include Japan’s Toho, Japan’s Toray, Japan’s Mitsubishi, and the United States’ Hexcel. Japan’s Toray has always been in a leading position in the field of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber, and the company’s MJ series carbon fiber has achieved large-scale production. my country’s leading polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber companies include Jilin Chemical Fiber, Guangwei Composite Materials, Zhongfu Shenying, etc.

Industry analysts said that in recent years, driven by the technological innovation of local companies, my country’s polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber industry has begun to move towards high-end In the direction of development, T700 and T800 carbon fiber products have gradually achieved large-scale production. Polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber has a wide range of applications. With the rapid development of the aerospace industry, the market size of polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber will further expand.