Carbon fiber from micro to nano

50 years ago, research on traditional carbon fiber was started for rayon-based carbon fiber in the USA. Dr. A. Shindo invented a method for producing high performance carbon fiber by oxidizing PAN fiber in 1960. In 1963 Prof. S. Otani invented high performance pitch-based carbon fiber by aligning the mesophase molecules in the fiber direction by applying a shear stress at the spinneret. In addition to their excellent inventions, other key persons such as Dr. K. Morita of Toray and Dr. K. Gomi of Kureha Corporation were behind the success of carbon fiber development and the cultivation of new fields of application.Recently new technologies have been developed for carbon nanofiber production, such as CCVD, electro-spinning, super growth and spinning of a polymer blend. In this paper the history of carbon fibers will be reviewed to learn lessons from past efforts and, making use of the results, to develop an excellent carbon nano-fiber.