Track: Poster Competition

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer is vastly used within many industries due to its superior specific strength and stiffness. A material that is being developed to be used in conjunction with or as a replacement of carbon fiber is carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs are a multifunctional material which exhibit excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical conductive properties. However, these properties are exemplified at the nanoscale level, and the properties begin to decrease as the CNT network increases in scale. The goal is to minimize surface cracks that may occur. Therefore, these two materials are tested together and separately to evaluate their performance and validate improvement. Functionalization techniques were employed on the CNT network as well as varying the curing parameters to improve the properties. Mechanical testing as well as microscopy characterization were performed on the resulting composite samples. Results were then analyzed by using statistical tools. After thorough research it was found that, by creating a hybrid composite of carbon nanotubes and carbon fiber, the mechanical properties varied from an improvement upon the control composite to a decrease in properties depending on the test performed. The goal of using this approach is to later be used in larger samples and ultimately in spacecraft and other applications.