Void‐Free Layered Polymeric Architectures via Capillary‐Action of Nanoporous Films

Abstract

Here, a nanomaterial with morphology‐controlled nanoscale capillaries is utilized to overcome manufacturing challenges in layered polymeric architectures. It is demonstrated that the capillary pressure from a nanoporous film replaces the need for applied pressure to manufacture void‐free layered polymeric architectures. Manufacturing of aerospace‐grade advanced carbon fiber composites is performed for the first time without utilizing pressure from an autoclave. Combined with a conductive curing approach, this work allows advanced composites to be manufactured without costly oven or pressure vessel infrastructure. The nanomaterial‐enabled capillary pressure is quantified as 50% greater than typical pressures used in such processing, and is anticipated to overcome the limitations imposed by the requirement of high applied pressure in many other applications such as adhesive joining of various bulk materials including metals, press forming, and closed‐mold infusion processing of layered composites and polymers.

Building Life-Cycle Enhancement Multifunctionality into Glass Fiber Reinforced Composite Laminates via Hierarchical Assemblies of Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

“…Therefore, numerous studies have been conducted on multifunctional composite structures that perform additional functions apart from the primary structural functions. For example, composite structures with life cycle enhancements [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], manufacturing energy savings [9][10][11][12][13][14], self-health monitoring, ice protection system [15], and self-cure sensing capability [11][12][13] have been demonstrated. While individual multifunctionalities have been demonstrated, integration of these multifunctionalities into a single engineering solution has not been undertaken.…”

Nanoengineered Glass Fiber Reinforced Composite Laminates With Integrated Multifunctionality

“…Besides reinforcing applications, nano-engineering of these lightweight materials allows for the addition of multifunctionalities with little or no increase in weight while adding multiple advantageous functionalities besides the primary structural function. While nano-engineered multifunctional capabilities of structural materials have been explored individually, like life-cycle enhancement [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], energy saving during manufacturing [9][10][11][12][13][14], sensing and control [9], in-situ cure monitoring [11][12][13], and deicing [15], the integration of these multifunctionalities into one engineered composite has not been undertaken. In this paper, a preliminary study of one such integrated multifunctional composite (IMC) was performed by the nano-engineering of laminates based on Hexcel E-glass/913 unidirectional glass fiber prepreg with the focus on investigating the effect of VA-CNT interlaminar reinforcement and CNT commercial film on the quality and strength of the composite laminates.…”

Process-Structure-Property Relations in Dense Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Aerospace-grade Epoxy Nanocomposites

“…Here, Xray µCT is a useful non-destructive and high-resolution imaging technique that is employed to provide 2D cross-section slices and 3D bulk volume rendering of the PNC interior, which allows for the visualization of the polymer infiltration extent at the micro-scale, as well as any micron-scale voids or low-density areas that would indicate only partial polymer infiltration. 24,[62][63][64][65] Bright regions signify more dense material (i.e. neat polymer or composite), and dark regions signify less dense material (i.e.…”