Puncture-healing thermoplastic resin carbon-fiber-reinforced composites and method of fabricating the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10450432-B2
Application number	US-201715729189-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2017
Priority date	Feb 24, 2012
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

A composite comprising a combination of a self-healing polymer matrix and a carbon fiber reinforcement is described. In one embodiment, the matrix is a polybutadiene graft copolymer matrix, such as polybutadiene graft copolymer comprising poly(butadiene)-graft-poly(methyl acrylate-co-acrylonitrile). A method of fabricating the composite is also described, comprising the steps of manufacturing a pre-impregnated unidirectional carbon fiber preform by wetting a plurality of carbon fibers with a solution, the solution comprising a self-healing polymer and a solvent, and curing the preform. A method of repairing a structure made from the composite of the invention is described. A novel prepreg material used to manufacture the composite of the invention is described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of fabricating a composite comprising the steps of:
dissolving a polybutadiene graft copolymer with a solvent to form a solution;
wetting a plurality of tows of a carbon fiber or a fabric of the carbon fiber with the solution;
fabricating prepregs from the wetted tows or fabric in a prepreg machine; and
laying up fabricated prepregs and process in a vacuum press to produce the composite, wherein the composite exhibits an average fiber volume fraction (FVF) of greater than 60%.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fabricating step comprises:
increasing the temperature in the vacuum press from about 25° C. to about 150° C. at about 2° C. per minute under full vacuum and holding at about 150° C. for about 60minutes under full vacuum;
increasing the temperature in the vacuum press to about 225° C. at about 2 ° C. per minute under full vacuum and holding at about 225° C. for about 60 minutes under full vacuum and about 1.7MPa compaction pressure; and
cooling the vacuum press to about 25° C. at about 2 ° C. per minute under full vacuum.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polybutadiene graft copolymer comprises poly(butadiene)-graft-poly(methyl acrylate-co-acrylonitrile).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the composite exhibits an average void volume fraction (VVF) of less than 2%.

Assignees

• Nasa

Inventors

• Gordon Keith L
• Siochi Emilie J
• Grimsley Brian W
• Cano Roberto J
• Czabaj Michael W

Classifications

• C08J2351/04

  grafted on to rubbers · CPC title

• C08K7/06

  Elements · CPC title

• C08J5/042 Primary

  with carbon fibres · CPC title

• C08J2351/06

  grafted on to homopolymers or copolymers of aliphatic hydrocarbons containing only one carbon-to-carbon double bond · CPC title

• C08J5/24 Primary

  Impregnating materials with prepolymers which can be polymerised in situ, e.g. manufacture of prepregs · CPC title