Enhancing the thermal conductivity and compressive modulus of carbon fiber polymer–matrix composites in the through-thickness direction by nanostructuring the interlaminar interface with carbon black

Abstract Heat dissipation from aircraft is important. Carbon fiber polymer–matrix structural composites have high in-plane thermal conductivity, but low through-thickness conductivity. A nanostructuring method involving carbon black at the interlaminar interface was developed to improve the through-thickness conductivity. Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGME) was used for dispersing the carbon black and to partially dissolution of the epoxy resin on the fiber-epoxy prepreg surface. EGME evaporated from the prepreg surface prior to composite fabrication. The optimum carbon black content in EGME for attaining high through-thickness conductivity was 0.8 wt.% for both unidirectional and crossply configurations. Applying EGME without carbon black improved the conductivity by up to 36%, but in the case with carbon black, the improvement was up to 210%. For the same interlaminar interface modification (except for EGME with 1.2 wt.% carbon black), the conductivity and its fractional increase were higher for the crossply configuration than the corresponding unidirectional configuration. The through-thickness compressive modulus and the flexural modulus were increased by up to 14% and 11%, respectively by using EGME with carbon black. The average thickness of the interlaminar interface increased with increasing carbon black content, but it was decreased by the use of EGME alone.