SBIR Phase I: Development and optimization of a novel lightweight and impact-resistant composite

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a unique continuous-fiber composite that is lightweight and offers enhanced impact resistance and energy absorbance compared to commercially available carbon fiber composites. The demand for advanced composite materials is expected to steadily increase both in the United States and worldwide due to rapid growth in aerospace and automotive applications, as well as defense and clean energy applications. Though valued for their high strength-to-weight and lightweight properties, traditional and commonly-utilized fiber-reinforced composites composed of carbon fiber or fiberglass tend to exhibit brittle properties and low impact tolerance. Lack of damage tolerance leads to various forms of localized and nonlocalized material failure, compromising the material's structural integrity and incurring replacement costs and scrap waste. Developing composite materials that can withstand impact scenarios and possess damage tolerance is necessary to enable more widespread adoption of these materials across a variety of applications. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will explore material development and processing methodologies to progress and optimize the performance of the proposed novel composite material. The project will evaluate the feasibility of formulations composed of different iterations of this material technology while evaluating pre- and post-processing techniques for performance and scalability. Additional refinement strategies such as enhancing the fiber-matrix bond for enhanced anti-crack propagation and energy distribution will also be explored. This will be coupled with testing methodologies demonstrating various material property classifications as well as application-specific, proof-of-concept testing to demonstrate performance effectiveness. The goal is to approach the isotropic properties and impact resistance of high-performance metal alloys while retaining the lightweight, high strength-to-weight performance of carbon fiber composites. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.