Robust, Lightweight Composite Coatings Based on Carbon Nanofibers

ABSTRACT:The Air Force seeks to develop a new means of protecting aircraft structural composite components during maintenance and repairing the composites following minor damage.Maintenance and repair of aircraft components can be labor intensive and time consuming process.Multi-component coatings oftentimes must be applied, removed, and reapplied numerous times to ensure absence of pinholes and to achieve good surface finishes.Applied Sciences, Inc. has developed a single-step sprayable, advanced abrasion protection coating to address these needs.Nanocomposites feature reinforcement at the molecular level which can far exceed the physical properties of two-phase composite systems.ASI intends to continue the development of advanced abrasion resistant polymeric coatings featuring carbon nanofibers (CNF).The TRL and MRL of the CNF-coatings will each be elevated to at least 6 in the Phase II program through collaborative research, development, and testing.Scalability studies, commercialization activities, and quality control protocol will be addressed in this effort.The resulting CNF-enhanced coating product will increase the service life of the composite component on the aircraft, protect the composite component from additional damage, as well as reduce the maintenance time and cost.BENEFIT:Abrasion resistant coatings for structural composites will have applications on windmill blades, the automotive industry, commercial aircraft, and in marine and naval applications.