PURPOSE: To form carbon fibers which have good wettability with a matrix metal and with which reactivity is suppressed, by coating polymetalocarbosilane on the surfaces of the carbon fibers and subjecting the fibers to a heating treatment in an oxygen-contg. atmosphere, then subjecting the fibers to calcination in an inert atmosphere.
CONSTITUTION: The lightly anodized carbon fibers are immersed in an org. solvent soln. (about 0.5W2.0wt% concn.) of the polymetalocarbosilane (polytitanocarbosilane, etc., having about 2,000W50,000 number average mol.wt.) and are thereby coated with said soln. in such a manner that the thickness of the final coating attains about 0.3W3μ. The carbon fibers are then heated in air at about 0.1W5°C/min heating-up speed and are held for about 0.1W3hr at about 50W400°C. The carbon fibers are then calcined for about 0.5W30hr at about 800W1,500°C in the inert atmosphere so that the secure coating layers of the inorg. materials consisting of silicon, carbon, oxygen and metal are formed on the carbon fiber surfaces. Since these carbon fibers have the god wettability with metals, more particularly aluminum and the alloy thereof and are hardly reactable, the fibers are used as reinforcement fibers for fiber-reinforced metallic composite materials having excellent performance.
KATO AKIO
OBARA HIDEHIKO
