Preparation of carbon fiber from water hyacinth liquid tar

Elemental analysis of water hyacinth liquid tar indicated that it contains significant amount of oxygen atom. GC–MS analysis shows that the water hyacinth liquid tar is a suitable precursor for the preparation of intermediate material for carbon fiber due to high content of phenolic compounds. The carbonization of water hyacinth resin was carried out at 900 °C and the yield of the maximum total yield of carbon fiber was 29 %. The carbon fiber was characterized using SEM, and XRD methods, while the FTIR analysis was conducted to qualitatively verify the surface functional groups of water hyacinth tar and resin. The XRD analysis revealed that the carbon fiber is non-graphitic in nature. The pyrolysis temperature did not have any effect on the properties of the carbon fibers. The axial modulus and the tensile strength of carbon fibers produced from water hyacinth tar are around 42 GPa and 600 MPa, respectively. These properties are comparable to the commercial carbon fiber.