• Question: How is Carbon Fiber made?

    Asked by anon-175333 to Ella on 14 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Ella Mercer

      Ella Mercer answered on 14 Jun 2018:

      Ooo this is a tough question for me! I have to try and remember back to my chemistry A level days! So, what I know is that carbon fiber is a super super strong material (5x as strong as steel!) that is also very light. Most carbon fiber is made from a material called polyacryonitrile (can you try and say it?!). This material is then stretched out into very thin fibres and heated to hot temperatures (200-300c) before being heated to REALLY hot temperatures (1000-3000c). The surface of the fibers are then coated and these are then put onto spinning machines to twist the fibers into balls (a bit like balls of wool for knitting). Then it can be used for all kinds of useful things!

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