About the talk
Nanotechnology, which deals with the creation of materials, devices, and systems through manipulating materials at atomic/nanoscale, has great potential to revolutionise the aerospace and defence sector in the UK. We have developed a unique manufacturing method to seamlessly integrate carbon nanotubes films/fibers, which are directly spun from a continuous gas phase reactor into traditional carbon/glass fibre composite laminates. The nano-reinforcement/non-integration enabled us to improve the fracture toughness, electrical conductivity and erosion resistance of the glass/carbon fibre composites. Our nano reinforced/nano-modified glass and carbon fibre composites will be useful for number of aerospace applications such as aircraft lightning strike protection, EMI shielding, improving the fracture toughness of composites used in aerospace structures and erosion control of composite helicopter blades. The potential future applications such as radar wave absorption (stealth), protection from high-velocity impact and energy storage will also be discussed as a part of this presentation.