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and high specific strength are required attributes. [1] CFRP composites have gained popularity, and they are already dominating the aerospace and wind energy industries. [2,3] CFRP incorporation in future transport vehicles, such as urban air mobility (UAM), is also growing. [4] CFRPs can replace their metal counterparts in applications where specific strength is desired but not in applications where other properties such as high electrical conductivity are required. Lightning strikes on aircraft and wind turbine structures are serious concerns, specifically, if the structures are made of CFRP composites. [5,6] During a lightning strike, a massive surge of electric current passes through the structures. If the structure does not possess enough electrical conductivity to dissipate the incident current, these structures can be destroyed due to the extreme amount of heat produced by the resistive heating or Joule's heating. [7] CFRP composites' low electrical conductivity (in through-thickness direction ≈ 0.01 S cm −1 ) makes them highly vulnerable to lightning strikes. [8] A common remedy is to protect the less-conductive CFRP using highly conductive coatings.Current commercial lightning strike protection (LSP) technologies in the aerospace industry are mainly composed of Ti 3 C 2 -a member of the MXenes (2D transition metal carbides and nitrides) family, is investigated as an effective filler to improve the electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of divinylbenzene (DVB) thermosetting resin. Consequently, its performance as a lightning strike protection (LSP) coating for carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is evaluated. Polyaniline (PANI)dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) complex is used to cure the DVB resin. The synergic effect of MXenes (with surface that is negatively charged) with polyaniline (positive charge) shows electrostatic bonding and improved electrical conductivity in the composite. The addition of MXenes at 2 wt% into the PANI-DVB composite shows ≈139%, 10%, and 9% improvement in electrical conductivity, flexural strength, and flexural modulus, respectively, compared to the neat PANI-DVB composite. The composites are investigated using various material characterization techniques including Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, MXenes-DVB is utilized to create a conductive thermosetting coating on top of a CFRP substrate and tested against a lightning strike of 100 kA. CFRP with MXenes-DVB coating reduced the surface damage from 40.61 cm 2 (reference CFRP panel) to 13.29 cm 2 (CFRP coated with MXenes-DVB).

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