Lightweight chopped carbon fiber/carbon composites with low thermal conductivity fabricated by vacuum filtration method

Lightweight carbon fiber/carbon composites (CFC) are widely used in solar silicon furnace, semiconductor long crystal furnace and other high-temperature equipment due to its superior low thermal conductivity, low expansion coefficient, high purity, good mechanical properties, and high temperature resistance. In this paper, the lightweight chopped CFC was prepared by the method of liquid phase dispersion of chopped carbon fibers-vacuum filtration-curing molding-high temperature carbonization and graphitization. The thermal conductivity of lightweight chopped CFC with different densities (0.12, 0.16 and 0.18 g/cm3) was studied, and the thermal conductivity of lightweight chopped CFC at high temperature was also studied. The results show that the thermal conductivity (1000 °C) of the chopped CFC gradually increases with the increasing density from 0.179 W/(mK) (0.12 g/cm3) to 0.190 W/(mK) (0.16 g/cm3), 0.282 W/(mK) (0.18 g/cm3), indicating that with the increasing density, the thermal conduction path of the carbon fiber increases, the thermal conductivity of the CFC material increases, and then the thermal insulation performance decreases. In addition, with the increasing temperature, the phonon vibration increases, the thermal conductivity of the CFC material also increases, and then the thermal insulation performance decreases.