Structural materials for satellites call for reliant stiffness while meeting the requirements of strength. Cyanate resins with superior mechanical properties and reliable dimensional stability have come under the light in the aerospace field. Herein, TDE‐86 epoxy resin was adopted to modify bisphenol E cyanate resin to prepare a high‐performance composite matrix with superior mechanical properties, low molding temperature and adequate toughness. The silica‐coated carboxylated multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (SiO2@MWCNT) was designed and synthesized by sol‐gel method for the reinforced preparation of high‐modulus cyanate/epoxy composites. The experiment results demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the resin matrix could be effectively enhanced by the introduction of SiO2@MWCNT, and the optimal overall performance was achieved with 0.9 wt% SiO2@MWCNT. Compared with unmodified resin matrix, the incorporation of SiO2@MWCNT contributes a large increase in the storage modulus and glass transition temperature. Benefit from the addition of nanomaterials, the curing temperature and viscosity of cyanate resin modified by epoxy resin were further reduced to nearly 70 °C and 40 mPa ⋅ s, which makes the composite matrix retain excellent processing properties.

Cyanate ester-based shape memory composites with superior mechanical properties and good shape memory performance are needed in the aerospace field. In this work, we utilized a simple sol-gel method to fabricate multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated with silica (MWCNT@SiO 2 ), which were used to construct a cyanate ester-based shape memory composite (SMPC). The moisture resistance of SMPC was improved by the introduction of MWCNT@SiO 2 . MWCNT@SiO 2 had an efficient enhancement effect on the mechanical strength and toughness of SMPC, and the SMPC exhibited the best mechanical properties with 0.9 wt% loading of MWCNT@SiO 2 , which was associated with the dispersion of MWCNT@SiO 2 in the resin matrix. Compared to neat cyanate ester and epoxidized hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene resin matrix, it was found that the storage modulus of SMPC increased and the values of glass transition temperatures decreased by incorporation of MWCNT@SiO 2 .Meanwhile, the SMPC retained good shape memory performance, corresponding to high shape fixity ratio and shape recovery ratio (over 98% after 10 test cycles). The addition of MWCNT@SiO 2 accelerated the shape memory progress of SMPC.