The market demand for carbon fiber paper (carbon paper) is strong and no domestic company has mass production capabilities.

Carbon fiber paper, referred to as carbon paper, also known as carbon fiber paper, refers to a paper-like composite material prepared by using carbon fiber as a reinforcing agent, natural pulp or synthetic pulp as the matrix, adding adhesives and fillers through papermaking technology, and belongs to A type of functional enhancement material. Carbon fiber paper has the advantages of high porosity, good uniformity, strong electrical conductivity, excellent air permeability, strong energy saving, good high temperature resistance, high durability, and strong corrosion resistance. It can be widely used in batteries, packaging, communications, and construction. , new energy, military equipment, aerospace and other fields.

According to different properties, carbon fiber paper can be divided into two categories: ordinary carbon fiber paper and high-performance carbon fiber paper. The production process of ordinary carbon fiber paper is mature, and it is mainly made through wet papermaking. The carbon fiber content of the generated product is 5%-60%, and large-scale mass production and application have been achieved. When producing high-performance carbon fiber paper, purity, resistivity, porosity, The uniformity requirements are high and the production process is complex. It can be made through wet forming, dry papermaking and other processes. Only a few countries in the world can achieve mass production.

Carbon fiber paper has a wide range of applications, and batteries are its main application area. In this field, carbon fiber paper is mainly used as a gas diffusion layer material in the production scenario of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The gas diffusion layer material is the core material of PEMFC. Its main function is to form a channel for gas diffusion from the flow cell to the catalyst layer, thereby connecting the membrane electrode group and the graphite plate. Commonly used gas diffusion layer materials include carbon paper, carbon cloth, nonwoven fabric, carbon black paper, etc. Among them, carbon paper has greater strength, stronger support, better heat dissipation performance, and excellent overall performance. It has become the most commonly used type of gas diffusion layer material.

According to the “China Carbon Fiber Paper (Carbon Paper) Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center shows that the global proton exchange membrane fuel cell market shipments in 2022 will exceed 80,000 units, accounting for more than 80% of total fuel cell shipments. It is currently the mainstream product in the fuel cell market. As PEMFC shipments continue to rise, demand for carbon fiber paper, one of its essential raw materials, continues to grow, and market demand is relatively strong.

The carbon fiber paper industry has high technical barriers. The global market is mainly concentrated in the hands of European and American companies and Japanese companies with a long development history and sufficient technical experience reserves, including SGL of Germany, Ballard Material Products of Canada, Toray of Japan, etc. Among them, Japan’s Toray holds a number of core patents for carbon fiber paper and occupies a large share of the global market.

Industry analysts said that from the perspective of the Chinese market, my country’s carbon fiber paper industry is still in the research and development stage, and no company has yet achieved scale. There is still a big gap between mass production capacity and industrial application, and domestic demand still relies on imports. At present, the domestic research institutions and companies that have laid out the carbon fiber R&D track mainly include Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Central South University, Zhejiang Precision Technology, etc. In the future, local companies will need to continue to conquer key technologies and increase research and development efforts to create room for industry growth. huge.