Fuel has many environmental impacts, negative ones of course. Now, there are some promising news about one of the things producing fuel: Airplanes. The newest Airbus and Boeing passenger jets flying today are made primarily from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic, which are extremely light, durable materials that reduce the overall weight of the plane by as much as 20 percent compared to aluminum-bodied planes.
What is really significant about them is that “such lightweight air-frames translate directly to fuel savings, which is a major point in advanced composites’ favor”.
Today’s composite materials are composed of layers, or plies, of horizontal carbon fibers, held together by a polymer glue, which one of the scientists describes as “a very, very weak, problematic area.”
The researchers’ technique integrates a scaffold of carbon nanotubes within a polymer glue. They first grew a forest of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes and transferred it onto a sticky, uncured composite layer. Then they repeated the process to generate a stack of 16 composite plies, with carbon nanotubes glued between each layer. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Size matters, because we’re able to put these nanotubes in without disturbing the larger carbon fibers, and that’s what maintains the composite’s strength,” Phys.org quoted one of the researchers as saying.
He added: “What helps us enhance strength is that carbon nanotubes have 1,000 times more surface area than carbon fibers, which lets them bond better with the polymer matrix.”
Share your thoughts on this article through our Facebook Page: greenarea.info
