China finally able to produce T1000 carbon fiber

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Thanks to a key breakthrough, China can finally now produce the equivalent of high-performance T1000 carbon fiber which would prove extremely useful in the aerospace and defense sectors.

This is according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) published on Wednesday.

T1000 has a tensile strength of 7GPa, an ultimate elongation at break of 2.4 percent and a tensile modulus of elasticity (a measure of how much a material can be stretched without breaking) of 294GPa. This means that T1000 carbon fiber is ideally suited for use in aerospace, defense and other applications that require high strength and low weight.

The new development comes from a collaboration between Changsheng Technology Co Ltd and Shenzhen University. SCMP reports that the organizations can now engineer a “production line that can make 1,700 tonnes (1,874 tons) of the material per year.”

So far, China has been unable to produce the material because of US and Japanese bans on exporting the necessary resources to develop it. Therefore, the nation was forced to settle for T300 and T700 materials that did not perform nearly as well as the T1000.

Changsheng Technology’s chief scientist, Xu Jian, told SCMP that a “meter-long (3.3-foot) bundle of T1000 carbon fiber weighed only 0.5 grams (0.018 ounces) but could withstand about 500kg (1,102lbs) of force.”

“A finger-thick bundle can even pull two airplanes,” told the Chinese news outlet Xu, who also serves as a professor at Shenzhen University.

The ultra-high modulus carbon fiber used in the T1000 is stiffer and stronger than that used in T300 and T700 models. This, however, makes T1000 carbon fiber significantly more expensive and more rare.

Thanks to Changsheng Technology Co Ltd and Shenzhen University all that will soon change.

China has long been at the forefront of inventing new and better performing materials. Chinese researchers created the first ceramic substance in the world that could bend like metal to be used in artificial joints and engines.

Researchers at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences at Wuhan University developed alloys that could be produced from a diverse range of metals and at much lower temperatures than conventional methods.

Meanwhile, a multi-institute Chinese research team fabricated a novel family of metallic compounds, each possessing unique properties and molecular structures that make them ideal for use in next-generation technologies.

Finally, during COVID, researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Institute of High Energy Physics, and the Kunming Institute of Zoology – all under the Chinese Academy of Sciences – conceived of a new nanomaterial that could target Sars-CoV-2 viruses (Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron) and disarm them.

These inventions help make the country competitive with western nations and place it at the forefront of new developments. The end result is that today China is one of the strongest economies in the world, constantly producing innovations that push science forward and create new frontiers for researchers to aspire to.

What will the country develop next? Only time can tell.