Carbon Composites with Improved EMI Shielding Navy SBIR FY2005.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2005.2 Topic No.: N05-092 Topic Title: Carbon Composites with Improved EMI Shielding Proposal No.: N052-092-0213 Firm: Luna Innovations Incorporated 2851 Commerce Street Blacksburg, Virginia 24060-6657 Contact: Aaron Small Phone: (540) 552-5128 Web Site: www.lunainnovations.com Abstract: The conversion of metal components on aircraft to polymer reinforced composites allows up to 50% weight savings over metal structures. This reduction in weight will enable significant gains in performance (increased range, payload, velocities), and lowering of costs. Composites also provide further advantages of low maintenance and corrosion resistance. One of the obstacles with the use of composites is the lack of electrical and thermal conductivity achieved by their metal counterparts. In particular, the Faraday cage, which protects electronic components on the aircraft from electromagnetic interference (EMI), is lost with the use of insulating polymer resins. On this program, Luna will develop highly conductive resins, adhesives, and gap fillers with the use of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) in conjunction with improved carbon composite fabrication techniques. The resultant composites will achieve up to 80 dB level of EMI shielding required for high power electronic enclosures. Benefits: Luna's conductive composites will have significant advantages over other approaches: i) our methods for proven improved dispersion and interfacial bonding for superior mechanical properties; ii) Luna is currently in the process of building the first scaled facility for carbon nanomaterials production with high volume (>10 kilogram per month) at a fraction of the cost of currently available SWNT. Toward the improvement in SWNT/polymer composites, Luna has demonstrated excellent dispersion of nanotubes within selected polymer resins as demonstrated by our related work. On this program, Luna will use these techniques to develop high performance carbon nanotube/carbon fiber composites suitable for the demanding advanced aerospace industry by overcoming the current limitations of SWNT-containing composites. With the high thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes, these composites will also be directly applicable to thermal radiators for satellites, and other spacecraft. Return