Nanocomposites for Electrically Conductive Structural Adhesives and Bolt Hole Fillers

This Phase I program will use metallized carbon nanofibers to develop a class of electrically conductive structural adhesives and bolt hole fillers to improve the electrical and thermal transport properties of organic matrix composite structures. Metallized carbon nanofibers have the beneficial large aspect ratio of the carbon nanofiber and high electrical conductivity of the metal. They can confer significant electrical conductivity to polymer resins at moderate concentrations. In Phase I, MRI will produce silver- and copper-metallized carbon nanofibers of varying metal compositions. The metallized carbon nanofibers will be integrated with structural adhesive resins to formulate the electrically conductive structural adhesives and bolt hole fillers. An initial screening test will be employed to identify the most promising candidate materials. More elaborate electrical, thermal, mechanical, and lightning strike characterizations will be carried out on samples of selected candidate materials to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology.