Conductive Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Composite For Aircraft Gap Treatment

Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. and Liquid Crystal Institute of Kent State University jointly propose to develop and demonstrate material technologies enabling conductive liquid crystalline elastomer composite for aircraft gap treatment. This programwill design and experimentally characterize multiple candidate formulations to develop conductive elastomer materials tailored for this application. It will establish correlation between material synthesis and processing conditions with performance anddemonstrate feasibility of employing conductive liquid crystalline elastomer as aircraft gap treatment material. The proposed conductive elastomer composite provide the means to enhance performance and improve increase service life by increasing theelasticity and reducing tendency of compression set. It will also reduce operational cost by reducing weight of the conductive filler. The proposed program will also develop processing technologies to use conducting liquid crystalline elastomer compositefor field repair of gap treatment material. This suite of new technologies will address the drawbacks of conventional metal filled elastomer gap treatment materials. Operational Benefits: 1. Enhance electrical conductivity of by tailoring conductingpolymer network microstructure within elastomer through liquid crystal template synthesis. 2. Reduce weight of resulting conducting elastomer and reduce operating cost3. Enhance durability and performance by improving elasticity and reducing compression set. 4. Easily processable into final product by molding.Commercial Applications:1. EMI shielding for wiring and electronic instruments2. Electrostatic Dissipation in packaging and flooring materials