Hi, I’m going to be talking about Carbon fibre in tennis rackets What I will cover in the next ten minutes is this. I will talk you through what Carbon fibre is, its atomic structure, properties which then makes it the ideal material for modern tennis rackets. What is Carbon fibre? Carbon fibre consist of tiny filament about 5-8 mu metres in diameter. Carbon fibre mostly contains carbon bonds which are bonded together in a crystal Alignment. This means there are strong covalent bonds between the molecules. Being in its crystal alignment, this gives carbon fibre a high to strength to volume ratio which basically means it strong for its size. For example if you could make a tow from several thousand of carbon fibres bundled together. Here in this picture in the background comparing the size of one single carbon fibre to hair [point out and explain]
Atomic structure
Each carbon fibre is a bundle of thousands of carbon filaments. A single filament is a thin tube with the diameter of 5-8mu metres and almost all of it is carbon. As it has a crystal alignment which I have said earlier. It’s structure is similar to graphite’s hexagonal layered structure. But the difference is the way the layers are bonded. In graphite the layers are stacked parallel to one another and inbetween there are only weak Van der Waals forces, which are easy to break. Giving graphite its soft and brittle properties. There are two different ways the sheets of carbon, in carbon fibre are put together. 1)turbostratic carbon fibre. Turbostratic means the crystal structure in which planes have slipped out of alignment .
The Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of Carbon Fibre Reinforcement Polymer
Carbon fibre reinforcement polymer (CFRP) is an extremely strong and light which contains carbon fiber. Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite have been widely used in various applications especially used in the fabrication of aerospace structures and formula one body structures. Because of their low density, high strength and rigidity, excellent resistances to impacting and corrosion, ...
So In turbostratic Carbon fibre has sheets of carbon atoms that are folded or crumpled together. Giving its properties. High tensile strength- turbostratic Some Carbon fibres are derived from graphite after heat treatment at temperatures exceeding 2200 C. This is called Heat treated mesophase pitched derived carbon fibre, so the heat treated graphite has high young’s modulus and high thermal conductivity. These are SEM taken images a) is AR mesophase pitched carbon fibre and this has a radial structure. B) is AR mesophase pitched carbon fibre with modified 0.1% carbon Nanotubes, This has a random structure so this will be stronger as the dislocation cannot move through
Why is it used in Tennis rackets?
Part 1
A tennis racket needs to be fairly light, it wouldn’t be ideal if it is heavy and Carbon fibre is very light as its made mostly of carbon atoms and the carbon atoms don’t weigh much. It needs to be stiff. You can’t have a flexible racket, it would be impossible to play properly with. But heat treated carbon fibre has high stiffness. It nees have a strong frame so higher string tensions can be used without the frame weakening. Higher string tension makes gives the more control and feel from the racket. It needs to be tough. A tennis racket may be dropped or thrown around or the ball could hit the frame. If the racket was brittle, this wouldn’t be ideal due to the amount of use it will go through.
Dampening- aid with diagram and prop
Ball hitting racket vibrations can be felt by the player by the handle. There is a sweet spot, if the ball makes contact with the strings here less vibrations can be felt Anywhere out of the region the vibration will be vibrations will significantly increase. For It’s in important these vibrations to be dampened. Carbon fibre can reduce the amount of vibrations before they reach the player in case the ball misses the sweet spot.
The Term Paper on Microporosity And Surface Functionality Of Activated Carbon
Abstract Activated carbons have been prepared from jute stick by both chemical and physical activation methods using ZnCl2 and steam, respectively. The activated carbons were characterized by evaluating surface area, iodine number, pore size distribution, surface functional groups and surface textural properties. Based on the analysis, the activated carbon prepared by chemical activation method, ...
Part 2
100 % Graphite Tennis rackets- made from Graphite/carbon fibre and resin [60% graphite, 40% resin] It is not actually 100% true graphite because that is the kind of graphite found in pencils and that would definitely not be ideal. So the Carbon fibre adds stiffness and strength to the plastic resin. Quality depends largely on the amount of graphite/carbon fibre. Some professional/advanced player may find it too flexible. My racket
So this is the racket I am currently using. It is a 100% graphite racket, so it is most probably 60% graphite and 40 % resin. It is for advanced player/ competitive players so level 3.5- 5, So it has to be pretty decent. The stiffness is high due to the carbon fibre reinforment. But it is fairly light, and fit for someone like me. As it is for advanced player with a large swing it needs to be pretty aerodynamic. The tension can go up to 62 lb which definitely gives it more control and feel. With the weight the power is medium.
Bibliography
Slide 2;
Carbon fibre/ hair image- 13/01/13
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=Aglg10EGNTIX6M:&imgrefurl=http://www.carbonfiberdesigns.com/carbon-fiber-facts.html&docid=v5ezYeF3PDXQtM&imgurl=http://www.carbonfiberdesigns.com/images/Carbon-Fiber-and-Hair.jpg&w=600&h=337&ei=rLj9UOHJH6TL0AXsi4CIDQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=301&sig=101847954739400126328&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=233&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:82&tx=102&ty=107 Graphite image- 13/01/13
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=hYcmOcq9BJ5snM:&imgrefurl=http://web.mit.edu/3.082/www/team2_f01/chemistry.html&docid=nBanNPUtJbrqtM&imgurl=http://web.mit.edu/3.082/www/team2_f01/graphite.gif&w=323&h=238&ei=27j9UMDlLoSa1AXp2IHoDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=679&vpy=214&dur=148&hovh=190&hovw=258&tx=150&ty=105&sig=101847954739400126328&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=190&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0,i:126 Slide 3 ;
The Essay on Natural Gas Graphite Carbon Energy
Physical Properties of Graphite and Carbon Graphite Graphite is soft and black and the stable form of carbon. The usual form of graphite (hexagonal graphite) has hexagon sheets arranged in parallel layers. The carbon atoms are found at the corners of the regular and fused hexagons and has three neighbouring carbon atoms, so that the carbon forms a 2-dimensional hexagon net. The covalent bonding ...
Carbon Fibre/hair image -13/01/13
See Slide 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_(fiber) 6/01/13
Slide 4;
Graphite image 13/01/13
See Slide 2
Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_(fiber) 6/01/13
Chemistry knowledge
