High Temperature, Low Viscosity, Solvent-Free Oligoimide Composites for Naval Aviation Structures
Abstract
?This work directly addresses the scale-up development, synthesis and separation, of oligoimide thermosetting materials and the manufacturing technology to form high performance, high temperature, and adaptive manufacturing for Naval aviation carbon fiber-reinforced composite structures. This new class of oligoimides is based on well-defined, nano-structured silsesquioxane (inorganic core with organic moieties) resin with exact reactive functionalities. The inorganic core provides the durability needed at elevated temperature as well as relative low-moisture uptake, while organic moiety enables processing to composite structures. Owning to the multiple configuration arrangements, this system offers an unique approach in controlling the viscosity (based on mixing of isomers rather than molecular weight distribution), while take full advantage of zero solvents, no condensation by-product during cure, robust cure cycle and other desirable manufacturing attributes that will lead to high quality composite structures. The low-viscosity, solvent-free, high-temperature oligoimide resin offers the potential to be used in both powder and liquid forms which can be used for in-field repair of current oligoimide-based composite structures. Target of this effort is to correlate resin characteristics (i.e., viscosity, cure kinetics, gel points) to network performance (i.e., Tg, strength, fracture toughness) needed to provide a systematic formulation strategy of this new, innovative class of oligoimides for use in resin transfer molding (RTM), pre-preggable system for autoclave processing and low temperature processing cycle for in-field repair materials technology by "liquidifing" the oligoimide at 160°C with an optimized catalyst to reduce the cure temperature.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 09, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612109
Entities
People
- Andre Lee
Organizations
- Michigan State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy