CARBON NANOTUBE-ENHANCED CARBON FIBER

摘要

This paper focuses on the NanoRidge carbon nanotube-enhanced carbon fiber effort. Thisrnresearch and development project was funded by the Air Force Small Business TechnologyrnTransfer program and was in collaboration with the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Duringrnthe course of this two year effort, several key discoveries were made. Firstly, carbon nanotubesrncan be covalently tethered to the carbon fiber precursor to ultimately form a carbonrnnanotube/graphite hybrid structure (patent pending). Secondly, carbon nanotubes enhance bothrnthe tensile strength and modulus of the fiber. Thirdly, these fibers can be formed using standardrnaerospace-grade carbon fiber production equipment. In the stabilized hybrid fiber, the teamrnobtained a 40 % increase in strength along with a 38 % increase in modulus. These findings andrnthe future direction of this project are described in detail. Additionally, results were obtainedrnthat suggest low loadings of polymeric fillers can reduce the stabilization time and temperature.rnThe stabilization stage is the most decisive and rate determining step in carbon fiberrnmanufacture. Reduction in time and temperature here leads to cost savings. This is additionallyrndescribed.