Preparation of Conductive Metal-Containing High-Performance

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research Phase I program will test a processing scheme for introducing exceptional electrical conductivity to a class of high-temperature, high-strength polymer fibers. This class of polymer fibers include poly (p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA), poly (p-phenylene benzobisthiazole) (PBZT) and poly (p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (PBO). The polymer fibers are prepared from their nematic liquid crystalline solutions under a very high extensional flow. Therefore, they exhibit extremely high molecular orientation and tensile mechanical properties. In this Phase I research program, metal precursors will be incorporated into the high-performance polymer fibers and subsequently reduced to form a continuous network of the highly conductive metal in the fiber matrix giving rise to the conductivity. The proposed processing scheme is fully in line with the commercial production of these polymer fibers. The resulting conductive metal-containing polymer fibers are expected to have advantages over conductive metal wires in flexibility, weight savings, mechanical strength and durability, tailored electrical conductivity and more uniform electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding as well as advantages over metal-coated conductive polymer fibers in thermal and mechanical durability and EMI shielding at low frequencies. They have great potential for applications in automobiles and space aerospace vehicles, where flexibility, weight savings and mechanical durability are important.