Knowde Enhanced TDS
Identification & Functionality
- Chemical Family
- Technologies
Features & Benefits
- Base Chemicals Features
- Meso-C Precursor Accelerating Carbon Fiber Adoption.
Pitch fibers spun with mesophase carbon bring a high stiffness advantage to stabilize structural applications requiring minimal flex or deflection. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) carbon fibers dominate the marketplace today with high tensile strength at price points acceptable for advanced technologies. However, low modulus PAN fibers have limited its universal use. Fibers born of petroleum mesophase, like Meso-C™ have shown tensile strengths equaling PAN in laboratory research, but the source material has not been readily available – MotorCarbon has cracked the code with Meso-C™.
- Meso-C Powder Innovating Additive Manufacturing Materials
Meso-C™ carbon powders bring new advantages to 3D Printing as a novel method to produce lightweight artifacts and parts through additive manufacturing and isostatic press sintering. As a sole material or as an additive filler, Meso-C™ will be a welcomed material addition to metals, plastics and ceramics. MotorCarbon is working with production partners to engineer and deliver the basic available material forms for conventional and additive manufacturing. Part designs and configurations previously unobtainable are transforming manufacturing from rapid prototyping to economical rapid manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is seeking new transformative materials to work with – Meso-C™ is what’s next.
Applications & Uses
- Applications
- Applicable Processes
- Applications and Markets
The applications of Meso-C™ spans a multitude of markets and industrial segments from Aerospace to Automotive, from Industrial to Medical, and from Electrical to Energy Storage. Critical load-bearing structures in the transportation sector will benefit with stiff, high modulus Meso-C™ pitch carbon fibers resisting deflection in open members structures such as door frames in automobiles and wing-to-fuselage zones in aircraft. Pitch carbon fibers are low weight providing added fuel economy.High temperature applications such as rocket nozzles, hypersonic leading edges, and electronics can leverage Meso-C™’s powerful and rapid heat conducting properties in the form of carbon foams for thermal management and cooling. Densification of carbon-carbon preforms can directly benefit from petroleum-based Meso-C™ surpassing mesophase materials made from coal tar and naphthalene.
The extreme thermal stability of ultra-light Meso-C™ foam can be specified for optical benches supporting precision instrumentation on satellites and military aircraft. In space, optical benches made of Meso-C™ foam remain dimensionally stable even with vast temperature changes during in-and-out exposure to sunlight. Shedding heat from satellite electronics has long relied on heavy aluminum radiators. Meso-C™ foam is replacing existing hardware with light-weight, more conductive alternatives. Additive manufacturing is constantly seeking and demanding new printable materials. Carbon powder made of Meso-C™ is a material that is neither metal nor plastic, enabling builds of advanced technology artifacts that are lighter with disruptive properties. Carbon powder made of Meso-C™ is sinterable and used in the metal powder industry. They can be pure carbon or a matrix of metal/carbon. These small, mass produced carbon parts are light-weight with customized novel thermal properties.
Properties
Technical Details & Test Data
- Meso-C foam Disrupting Thermal Management Applications.
Carbon foams made of Meso-C™ of various densities and pore sizes which have been graphitized offer unheard of stability at high temperatures. Measurements show the graphitized foams at a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) near zero at 0.2 µm/m-K at 350 °C, compared to Invar which has a CTE of ~7.0 µm/m-K at 350 °C. The attractive benefit is these foams is their light weight, as they are 13% the weight of titanium or 4% of Invar. More incredible is the rate at which Meso-C™ anisotropic graphite foams transport heat. Meso-C foam has diffusivity measured at 700+ mm2/s surpassing carbon-carbon composites known to be fast at 216 mm2/s. In a graphitized form, petroleum mesophase carbon foams can withstand temperatures up to 3,000 ºC – Meso-C™ delivers thermal stability.