Materials made from carbon fibre are valuable because they are exceptionally strong while remaining lightweight.
Now, researchers have come up with a way to make carbon fibre out of an ultra-cheap source: pitch.
The carbon fibre produced from this method has advantages other than lower cost of manufacture over traditional carbon fibre, which are typically made from polyacrylonitrile.
Composites made from carbon fibre have only been used in a few very expensive vehicle models so far, because those of the quality needed for automotive use currently cost at least $22–27 per kilogram.
And because of the incredibly cheap starting material, the researchers estimate that their method can produce carbon fibre at a cost as low as approximately $7 per kg.
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