One of the strongest construction materials in relation to its weight is carbon fiber composites. The use of carbon fiber composites has increased substantially, for example in the automotive industry. Carbon fiber composites can decompose to respirable fibers and particles at high temperatures. The respirable fibers and particles can reach down to the alveoli in the lungs and cause inflammations. Respirable fibers have a diameter less than 3 μ m, a length longer than 5 μ m and a ratio between length and diameter equal to or greater than 3. Mechanical machining of carbon fiber composites decomposes the carbon fibers to inhalable fiber fragments with the original fiber diameter retained. Respirable fibers and fiber fragments can also transport other hazardous compounds or cause irritations on the skin and in the eyes. The aim of this study was to study the degree of contamination on protective clothes exposed to combustion or mechanical machining of carbon fiber composites. This to increase the understanding of the degree of contamination. The studied protective clothes were fire clothing from the emergency services in Karlskrona, disposable overalls used by the aircraft crash site group in the Swedish Armed Forces and lab coats used by Exova Materials Technology AB when mechanically machining carbon fiber composites. The protective clothes were washed after contamination to study how the contamination decreases after being washed. The contamination on the protective clothes were analyzed with GC - MS, microscopy and SEM. The conclusions from this study is that contamination of particles and fibers in varying sizes as well as gases are observed on the protective clothes, for example N,N - dimethyl formarmide and 1H,1H,2H,2H - perfluorooctan - 1-ol . Respirable fibers and particles were observed on the protective clothes after the combustion of carbon fiber composites. Washing the fire clothing and the lab coats eliminated the contamination. The contamination on the disposable overalls decreased after washing them, but did not eliminate the contamination completely
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-151958 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Mahrs, Allis |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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