One day in May 1959, Akio Kondo of the Osaka Industrial Research Institute, having nothing to do, opened an industrial newspaper called 'Mechanical Design' and read it aimlessly. This is a habit he has developed over the years. Flipping through newspapers and magazines to seek inspiration for scientific research helps broaden his thinking. Seven years ago in 1952, Akio Kondo had just graduated with a doctorate and was assigned to this research institute. This is a branch of the Japan Industrial Technology Agency in the Kansai region. It was established in 1920 and mainly studies the textile industry, providing technical services for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Kansai region. Akio Kondo was assigned to the carbon materials research department of the institute, mainly engaged in fundamental research on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) materials, which is an important chemical raw material and can be used to produce acrylic fibers. An article in the newspaper that day caught his eye. It was a news story about the development of viscose-based carbon fibers by Union Carbide Corporation of the United States. His acute professional ethics made him think that PAN might be used as a precursor for carbon fiber. Akio Kondo's eyes lit up as he saw the practical application value of the research results he had persisted in for seven years. However, there were still some minor issues that needed to be verified, so Akio Kondo immediately set about conducting experiments. Fortunately, the research environment at the institute was very free. He had a great deal of autonomy to decide what research he needed to conduct. Fate was kind to this young man. In October 1959, he had already opened up the process route for using PAN as a carbon fiber precursor. Today, decades later, PAN-based carbon fibers have become the mainstream in the production of high-performance carbon fibers, accounting for 80% of the market share. At that time, only Union Carbide Corporation of the United States was producing carbon fiber. Although Thomas Edison tried to produce carbon fiber in the 19th century by carbonizing bamboo fiber, its carbon content was still very low, while graphite fiber with a high carbon content has long been considered impossible. However, in 1956, Union Carbide Corporation of the United States changed people's concepts. They began to use viscocel-based fibers to prepare carbon fibers and completed the research and development work two years later. At that time, carbon fiber was not called carbon fiber. Roger Bacon, the scientist of Union Carbide Company, gave it a nice name: 'Stone Ink Whiskers', which looked like a beard. Isn't it very vivid? However, the carbonization yield of viscocel-based fibers is relatively low, only 20%. That is to say, after the carbonization of 100 kilograms of viscose-based fibers is completed, only 20 kilograms of carbon fibers can be obtained. According to the molecular formula of viscosion-based materials, the specific gravity of carbon atoms is around 44%. However, during carbonization, half of the carbon atoms escape along with elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. At the same time, it also leads to the relatively low performance of viscose-based carbon fibers, which is not satisfactory. It is precisely because of this issue that the whole world is seeking raw materials to replace viscose-based fibers, which is exactly what Akio Kondo described in the article he saw. Akio Kondo reviewed his seven years of research and knew that PAN has excellent thermal stability after pre-oxidation, which is very suitable for the carbonization process. That is to say, during the carbonization process, the carbon atoms of PAN fibers can be well maintained. Facts have proved that Akio Kondo's judgment was correct. The carbonization yield of the process route he developed was between 50% and 60%, and its performance was far superior to that of viscocel-based fibers. Since then, PAN has rapidly replaced viscose-based carbon fibers, and now the share of viscose-based carbon fibers is less than 10%. The outstanding performance of PAN-based carbon fibers means that they have a wide range of applications, such as in military industry, aircraft components, lithium batteries, sports goods, and building reinforcement. The extensive applications of PAN-based carbon fibers brought about the rapid development of the carbon fiber industry in the 1970s, and Akio Kondo was precisely the one who opened up the technological route. Akio Kondo's technological route consists of several steps. Firstly, PAN is purified to remove other impurities and then spun into PAN precursor fibers. Then, before carbonization, the PAN precursor is subjected to thermal stabilization treatment, that is, pre-oxidation in the air at 250℃ for 30-120 minutes; Afterwards, the pre-oxidized PAN pre-oxygenated filament undergoes carbonization treatment at 1000℃. Carbonization removes elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, leaving only carbon, and eventually turns it into carbon fiber. Among them, Akio Kondo's greatest contribution was the introduction of pre-oxidation treatment. When Akio Kondo was conducting these studies, he had no idea how the results would be transformed in the future, as the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research did not have any institutions or policies related to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Just two months before Akio Kondo's technological route was established, that is, in August 1958, a new director, Yuto Sato Senya, came to the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research. Sato is a very courageous leader. He attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, and the number of patent applications at the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research has risen rapidly since his arrival. Sato formulated a series of policies. He gave researchers great freedom and allowed them to decide the handling of research results. At that time, Japan was recovering from the ruins of World War II. Both the government and research institutions were striving to help the country restore its economy and enhance its competitiveness in the international market. There are many researchers like Akio Kondo in Japan who attach great importance to whether their research and development achievements can be applied in actual production. Akio Kondo realized that his invention would have a profound impact on the new material of carbon fiber, so he strongly advocated applying for patent protection and received support from Sato. In 1959, Akio Kondo submitted a patent application to the Japanese Intellectual Property Office and also applied for patents internationally. Applying for a patent brings two benefits. Firstly, applying for a patent requires the disclosure of the technology, which will stimulate international companies to develop this technology and give the Osaka Institute of Industrial Technology more options to choose its partners. Secondly, disclosing patents will enhance the reputation of the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research and bring in a large amount of research funds. Researchers like Akio Kondo can also take advantage of cooperation with enterprises and make use of their advanced scientific research facilities. At that time, the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research did not have any relevant policies for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. After the new carbon fiber process was developed, many enterprises established their own research and development laboratories and purchased samples from the Osaka Industrial Research Institute. Sato realized that the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research needed an institution to operate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Therefore, in 1961, he established a technical consultation office to be responsible for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The establishment of the Technical consultation office has brought about an explosion in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements at the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research. At that time, there were two options for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements: First, establish a new company to develop this business; Second, license new technologies to other enterprises for development. Because Akio Kondo's ideal was to apply his research results to actual production, he was not interested in running a new company. Therefore, he chose to license to other companies to promote and develop his technology. When Akio Kondo was researching his carbon fiber process route, Tokai Electrode of Japan and Japan Carbon Company also showed great interest in carbon fiber. These two companies have rich experience in the production of carbon materials and regard carbon fiber as a great development opportunity. So in 1959, these two companies were authorized by the Osaka Industrial Research Institute and were permitted to use this technological achievement. Unfortunately, the investments of these two companies did not achieve the success they had expected. Although both of these two companies have production experience in carbon materials, neither of them has the production capacity of PAN precursor. The quality of PAN precursor is a very important factor in the quality of carbon fiber. Currently, approximately 70% of the key technologies are contained in the production of precursor. Meanwhile, Japan's largest synthetic fiber manufacturer has also shown interest in PAN-based carbon fibers. This company is Toray of Japan. In 1961, Toray of Japan established a carbon fiber research and development department, and in 1962, it began to study the application of carbon fiber in other fields. Toray's production capacity in PAN precursor is lacking by Tokai Electrode and Nippon Carbon Corporation. Toray also obtained the patent usage authorization from the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research in 1970, which enabled it to understand the efforts made by these two companies in carbon fiber research and development. As a result, Toray acquired the carbon fiber businesses of these two companies. Toray Corporation plans to utilize the technology of the Osaka Institute of Industrial Research to become the world's leading manufacturer of PAN-based carbon fibers, and at the same time, it will collaborate with Union Carbide Corporation of the United States using this technology. At the beginning, carbon fiber was mainly used in military products. The aerospace field also began to pay attention to this high-strength material. Meanwhile, Toray is making efforts to try to find a wider range of commercial application fields. At first, Toray was interested in applications such as bulletproof vests, ship mooring lines, fishing lines, and protective gear. In 1972, all of this changed. Back then, American professional golfer Brewer won the Pacific Club Masters, which was a highly prestigious tournament in Japan at that time. The newspapers also made extensive reports and mentioned that the club Brewer used was made of carbon fiber, which made his shots more powerful and thus ensured Brewer's championship in this major tournament. This matter was widely discussed at that time and drove the development of carbon fiber sports goods. In 1973, Toray established an institution dedicated to researching carbon fiber golf clubs and achieved great success. From 1973 to 1974, driven by sports goods, the demand for PAN-based carbon fibers grew rapidly. The production line of Toray Company with a monthly output of 5 tons of carbon fiber is also operating at full capacity and working overtime. By the end of 1974, Toray had increased the production capacity of its carbon fiber production line to 13 tons per month, and the products had expanded from golf clubs to tennis rackets and fishing rods. Toray has gradually taken the lead in PAN-based carbon fibers since then. The transformation and application of PAN-based carbon fiber technology has promoted the development of Toray Corporation and the carbon fiber industry in Japan. Over the past 30 years, Toray's carbon fiber business has achieved continuous growth and has now become the world's largest carbon fiber supplier. When Akio Kondo read that article, he would never have imagined that in just a few decades his technology would give rise to an industry and also enable Japan to gain international competitiveness in this new materials industry. I heard from a Japanese friend that this old man is still alive and is protected by the government like a national treasure. How fortunate it is to see that one's own technology can be applied and contribute to improving the national economy and people's livelihood. This is the story of the father of Pan-based carbon fiber.