Carbon fibers based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were developed in the 1960s by Dr. Akio Shindo at the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.  The resulting fibers contained 55% carbon. Pan is used to make carbon fiber reinforced plastics. In fact, the PAN-based conversion process quickly became the primary method for producing carbon fiber.  Ninety percent of carbon fibers today are made from polyacrylonitrile (C3H3N)n  or PAN a synthetic, semi-crystalline organic polymer resin. But the