To enable the next generation of high-performing aerospace vehicles, NECSTLAB is developing nanoengineered materials that are lighter, stronger, tougher, and have integrated multifunctional capabilities for example sensing or storing electricity. By integrating carbon nanotubes, which have high strengths (100 times that of steel) and electrical / thermal conductivities, into carbon fiber composite materials, NECSTLAB is developing advanced nanoengineered composites that will result in more durable structures. NECSTLAB is currently exploring methods for this integration. One potential method is growing them directly on the surface of the fibers: the advantage of this method is that it allows properties of the carbon-nanotubes - such as density, distribution, length and alignment - to be controlled. The fibers grown with in situ carbon-nanotubes are referred to as fuzzy fibers. The fuzzy fibers provide interlaminar reinforcement within the resulting fuzzy fiber reinforced plastics (FFRPs), owing to their increased surface area and added friction within the carbon-nanotube forests. FFRPs compared to unmodified fiber reinforced plastic laminates display a 75% increase in interlaminar fracture toughness.
I worked with Rich Li, a PhD candidate, during my Senior year at MIT. He was looking at ways to improve the shear strength of carbon fiber materials. One way to do this is by growing carbon nanotubes between layers of carbon fiber layups. A major difficulaty with this technique is that the carbon nanotubes were not able to grow long enough to meet their counterparts growing on adjacent layer of carbon fiber material, so the carbon nanotubes were not forming a dense and entangled network. The potential solution we were evaluating was using a unidirectional set of fibers (instead of fibers woven together) for each layer. This allows the spacing between each layer to be minimized allowing the carbon nanotubes to entangle as a dense network improving the shear strength of the material.
The results are written up in the following paper: www.researchgate.net/publication/338400709_Sodium-Based_Catalysis_Of_Carbon_Nanotubes_For_Interlaminar_Reinforcement_Of_Unidirectional_Hierarchical_Laminates
I worked with Rich Li, a PhD candidate, during my Senior year at MIT. He was looking at ways to improve the shear strength of carbon fiber materials. One way to do this is by growing carbon nanotubes between layers of carbon fiber layups. A major difficulaty with this technique is that the carbon nanotubes were not able to grow long enough to meet their counterparts growing on adjacent layer of carbon fiber material, so the carbon nanotubes were not forming a dense and entangled network. The potential solution we were evaluating was using a unidirectional set of fibers (instead of fibers woven together) for each layer. This allows the spacing between each layer to be minimized allowing the carbon nanotubes to entangle as a dense network improving the shear strength of the material.
The results are written up in the following paper: www.researchgate.net/publication/338400709_Sodium-Based_Catalysis_Of_Carbon_Nanotubes_For_Interlaminar_Reinforcement_Of_Unidirectional_Hierarchical_Laminates