LAUSR

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers were spun by solution spinning. In this work, two coagulation compositions, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/water and methanol, were used, and coagulation temperatures were varied from −20 to 0 to 20°C. The coagulation compositions and temperatures strongly affected the solvent diffusion processes, the structures of as-spun fibers, and the tensile properties of final drawn fibers. When DMSO/water was used as coagulation bath, non-solvent (water) diffused into PAN fibers and led to a quick PAN solidification. By comparison, when methanol was used as coagulation bath, no or minimal amount of methanol diffused inward to the fibers. The different solvent diffusion behaviors in DMSO/water and methanol baths led to different structures of as-spun PAN fibers. It was observed that the tensile properties of final drawn fibers strongly depended on the coagulation conditions. When methanol was used as coagulation bath and the bath temperature was −20°C, PAN fibers was found to possess the best tensile properties, a tensile strength of 0.89 GPa and young modulus of 20.4 GPa. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44390.