Small angle X-ray scattering study of microvoid evolution and pertinence of microvoid and mechanical properties in γ-irradiated CFs

To explore the mechanism of microvoid evolution and the pertinence of microvoid and mechanical behavior of carbon fibers (CFs) in gamma-irradiation, T700 CFs were exposed to gamma-rays under epoxy chloropropane (ECP) and argon (Ar) at room temperature. The results from small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) showed that the average microvoid radius of the CFs decreased gradually from 4.8406 nm for pristine fibers to 3.6868 nm (ECP) and 3.4223 nm (Ar), indicating that gamma-irradiation could obviously decrease the microvoid in CFs owing to annealing and rearrangement effects. More significantly, active media would enlarge the surface microvoid of fibers, thus the microvoid of CFs irradiated in ECP was overall larger than that in Ar. The tensile strength of CFs was increased from 5.74 GPa for the pristine fibers to 6.78 GPa (Ar) and 6.18 GPa (ECP) for the irradiated CFs along with a decrease in the microvoid. Therefore, this would provide a key to investigate the evolution of the CF microvoid during gamma-irradiation, which was conducive to improving the mechanical properties of gamma-irradiated CFs.