Research Terms
Engineering Industrial Engineering Manufacturing Engineering
Keywords
Additive Manufacturing Composites Famu-Fsu College Of Engineering Multifunctional Composites Nanomaterials Non-Metal Conductor Printed Sensors Sem/Tem Analysis Thermal Protection System (Tps)
Industries
Industrial Engineering Manufacturing Engineering
High-Performance Materials Institute
Director |
Zhiyong Liang |
Phone | (850) 645-8984 |
Website | http://hpmi.research.fsu.edu/ |
Mission | The High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) is a leading center in the composite R&D consisting of multidisciplinary professional researchers: students, staff and faculty. HPMI is dedicated to: -Become a leader in developing cost-effective high-performance composites and multifunctional nanomaterials and product prototypes, -Develop an interdisciplinary research team with a wide range of technical backgrounds for conducting world-class research towards making high-performance materials scalable, affordable and energy efficient, -Develop unique capabilities for concept-prototype development, nanomanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, -Establish a leading institute for undergraduate and graduate study and degree production in the related areas, and -Accelerate technical transfer and commercialization of the developed technologies to create local and national impacts. |
This invention provides a novel technique to enhance carbon nanotube dispersion and interfacial bonding in epoxy-based nanotube nanocomposites through in-situ polymerization. The in-situ polymerization reaction grafts peroxide groups onto the surfaces of nanotubes and the functionalized carbon nanotubes or nanofibers react with epoxy resin during nanocomposites fabrication. This in-situ polymerization can lead to high-exfoliation and uniform dispersion of carbon nanotubes or nanofibers in the epoxy polymer matrix during modification of nanotube surface characters. Furthermore the in-situ reaction produces covalent bond between nanotubes or nanofibers and the epoxy polymer matrix during composite fabrication through drafted peroxide groups to substantially improve load-transfer between nanotubes and resin. The significantly improved dispersion and interface bonding considerably increase the load-transfer and acquire high performance.