Graphene-augmented carbon fiber for aerospace composites

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9434826-B2
Application number	US-201514589057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 5, 2015
Priority date	Jan 5, 2015
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

Composite materials with graphene-augmented carbon reinforcement fibers having a graphene film wrapped about one or more carbon fiber filaments. The graphene film is wrapped about the carbon fiber filaments in a spiral orientation and has amine groups formed on an outer surface of the graphene film and epoxide groups formed on at least one edge of the graphene film. The amine groups are formed in a functionalized area on the outer surface of the graphene film that is within about 10 microns from the at least one edge of the graphene film. The graphene film may also have holes formed through the graphene film. The graphene film may be wrapped around a single carbon fiber filament, a substantially cylindrical bundle of about 19 carbon fiber filaments, or a substantially rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments formed from a plurality of carbon fiber tows.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A graphene-augmented carbon fiber comprising a graphene film wrapped about a carbon fiber filament.

2. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 1 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the carbon fiber filament in a spiral orientation.

3. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 2 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the carbon fiber filament to a thickness of about 0.1 to about 3.0 microns to form about 300 to about 9,000 layers of the graphene film on top of the carbon fiber filament.

4. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 1 , wherein the graphene film has amine groups formed on an outer surface of the graphene film and epoxide groups formed on at least one edge of the graphene film.

5. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 4 , wherein the amine groups are formed in a functionalized area on the outer surface of the graphene film that is within about 10 microns from the at least one edge of the graphene film.

6. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 5 , wherein the amine groups in the functionalized area on the outer surface of the graphene film have a surface density of about 4.0E10 to about 2.0E12 groups per square millimeter of the functionalized area.

7. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 5 , wherein about 0.1% to about 5.0% of carbon atoms in the functionalized area of the graphene film have amine groups bonded thereto.

8. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 4 , wherein the graphene film has a linear density of epoxide groups formed on the at least one edge of about 7,000 to about 700,000 groups per millimeter.

9. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 4 , wherein about 0.1% to about 10% of carbon atoms at the least one edge of the graphene film have epoxide groups bonded thereto.

10. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 1 , wherein the graphene film is about 0.5 microns to about 100 microns wide.

11. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 4 , wherein the graphene film further comprises at least one hole formed through the graphene film.

12. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 11 , wherein the holes are substantially circular and have a diameter of 1-2 nanometers.

13. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 11 , wherein the graphene film has a density of holes in the range of about 4E7 to about 4E10 holes per square millimeter, or about one hole per 1,000 to 1 million carbon atoms.

14. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 11 , wherein the holes have a size of about 12-80 carbon atoms.

15. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 1 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped around a substantially cylindrical bundle of at least one of 7, 19, 37 or 61 carbon fiber filaments.

16. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 15 , wherein the graphene film is about 0.5 microns to about 10 microns wide.

17. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 15 , wherein the graphene film comprises holes formed through the graphene film.

18. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 17 , wherein the holes are substantially circular and have a diameter of 1-20 nanometers.

19. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 17 , wherein the holes have a size of greater than about 100 carbon atoms.

20. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 19 , wherein the graphene film has a density of holes in the range of about 4E7 to about 4E10 holes per square millimeter, or about one hole per 1,000 to 1 million carbon atoms.

21. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 17 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the substantially cylindrical bundle of at least one of 7, 19, 37 or 61 carbon fiber filaments in a spiral orientation.

22. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 21 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the cylindrical bundle of at least one of 7, 19, 37 or 61 carbon fiber filaments to a thickness of about 0.1 to about 3.0 microns to form about 300 to about 9,000 layers of the graphene film on top of the carbon fiber filaments.

23. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 17 , wherein the graphene film has amine groups formed on an outer surface of the graphene film and epoxide groups formed on at least one edge of the graphene film.

24. The graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 23 , wherein the amine groups are formed in a functionalized area on the outer surface of the graphene film that is within about 10 microns from the at least one edge of the graphene film.

25. A graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber, comprising a graphene film wrapped around a substantially rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments separated from a plurality of carbon fiber tows.

26. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 25 , wherein the substantially rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments is about 12 inches wide and about 250 microns thick.

27. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 25 , wherein the substantially rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments comprises about 600,000 of the carbon fiber filaments.

28. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 25 , wherein the graphene film is about 0.5 microns to about 100 microns wide.

29. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 25 , wherein the graphene film comprises substantially circular holes formed through the graphene film having a diameter of 1-20 nanometers.

30. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 29 , wherein the graphene film has a density of holes in the range of about 4E7 to about 4E10 holes per square millimeter, or about one hole per 1,000 to 1 million carbon atoms.

31. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 25 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments in a spiral orientation.

32. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 31 , wherein the graphene film is wrapped about the rectangular bed of carbon fiber filaments to a thickness of about 0.1 to about 3.0 microns to form about 300 to about 9,000 layers of the graphene film on top of the carbon fiber filaments.

33. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 29 , wherein the graphene film has amine groups formed on an outer surface of the graphene film and epoxide groups formed on at least one edge of the graphene film.

34. The graphene-augmented bed of carbon fiber of claim 33 , wherein the amine groups are formed in a functionalized area on the outer surface of the graphene film that is within about 10 microns from the at least one edge of the graphene film.

35. A composite material comprising the graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 1 and a matrix material.

36. A composite material comprising the graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 15 and a matrix material.

37. A composite material comprising the graphene-augmented carbon fiber of claim 25 and a matrix material.

38. A method of increasing strength of a composite material comprising carbon reinforcement fibers and a resin matrix material, the method comprising:
wrapping a graphene film about each of the carbon reinforcement fibers in a spiral orientation to form graphene-augmented carbon fibers;
combining the resin matrix ma

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Humfeld Keith Daniel

Classifications

• C01B31/0438

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C08J2300/00

  Characterised by the use of unspecified polymers · CPC title

• D01F9/12

  Carbon filaments; Apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture thereof · CPC title

• C08J5/06 Primary

  using pretreated fibrous materials · CPC title

• C08J5/24

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