Ultrahigh Loading of Carbon Nanotubes in Structural Resins for Advanced Composites

High-loading carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based composites have found considerable application potentials in military. A key area of interest to Navy is unmanned vehicles that include air, ground, and sea platforms. However, the challenges in dispersing CNTs hind the development of such a composite in great demand. In this STTR phase I, NanoMech in partnering with Rutgers University proposes a novel approach to address the challenges. This approach starts with low-energy mechanical mixing process for uniformly combining CNTs and epoxy resin, followed by a proprietary spraying process, for deveoping a high-performance nanocomposite with at least 10 weight % CNTs. The main objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating nanocomposite with high percentage of CNTs (>10%). In addition, NanoMech team will develop the required techniques to quantify the volume or mass of CNTs, and examine the uniformity of CNTs distribution in the composite, and understand the basics on the change of reheological properties in CNTs dispersion or mixing. Based on successful demonstration of the feasibility in Phase I, NanoMech team will optimize the process, develop the quality control criteria and explore the scale-up of the manufacturing process for its repeatability, reproducibility, and durability for mass production in Phase II.