Carbon Composites with Improved EMI Shielding

The conversion of metal components on aircraft to polymer reinforced composites allows up to 50% weight savings over metal structures. This reduction in weight will enable significant gains in performance (increased range, payload, velocities), and lowering of costs. Composites also provide further advantages of low maintenance and corrosion resistance. One of the obstacles with the use of composites is the lack of electrical and thermal conductivity achieved by their metal counterparts. In particular, the Faraday cage, which protects electronic components on the aircraft from electromagnetic interference (EMI), is lost with the use of insulating polymer resins. On this program, Luna will develop highly conductive resins, adhesives, and gap fillers with the use of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) in conjunction with improved carbon composite fabrication techniques. The resultant composites will achieve up to 80 dB level of EMI shielding required for high power electronic enclosures.