IMPROVEMENT OF COPPER/EPOXY COMPOSITES FOR FUSION ENERGY MAGNET APPLICATIONS

THE COPPER/EPOXY COMPOSITE MATERIAL IS ANTICIPATED TO BE A LIMITED FACTOR IN ACHIEVING THE DESIRED PERFORMANCE OF SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS IN FUSION ENERGY SYSTEMS. THIS RESULTS FROM THE LOW RADIATION HARDNESS OF EPOXY RESINS, THE DEGRADATION IN MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AS A RESULT OF NEUTRON AND GAMMA RAY RADIATION, AND CERTAIN CRITICAL DEFICIENCIES IN MECHANICAL PROPERTIES IN GENERAL. IMPROVEMENTS IN INTERFACIAL BOND STRENGTHS AND AN ALTERNATE FOR THE FIBERGLASS REINFORCEMENT CONSTITUENT IN THE EPOXY RESIN OFFER THE POTENTIAL FOR INCREASING THE MECHANICAL CAPABILITY OF THE COPPER/EPOXY COMPISITE. CHEMICAL SURFACE MODIFICATION OF COPPER SURFACES AND FIBER SURFACES THROUGH A PLASMA AMINATION PROCESS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE COPPER-EPOXY INTERFACIAL BOND STRENGTH AND THE FIBER-EPOXY INTERFACIAL BOND STRENGTH. PLASMA AMINATION TREATMENTS ALLOWS THE SUBSTITUTION OF POLYARAMID FIBERS FOR THE FIBERGLASS RESULTING IN A REINFORCED EPOXY WITH A SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER SPECIFIC STRENGTH (STRENGTH/DENSITY) AND HIGH SPECIFIC STIFFNESS (MODULAS/DENSITY). PLASMA AMINATION EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON COPPER/FIBERGLASS-EPOXY AND COPPER POLYARAMID-EPOXY MATERIALS TO DEMONSTRATE IMPROVED MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE TREATED MATERIALS.