Atomic oxygen exposure effect on carbon nanotubes/epoxy composites for space systems

Abstract

Structural, optical and EMI shielding properties of epoxy resin reinforced with carbon nanotubes fillers “Taunit-M” and “Taunit-MD” have been studied. To estimate the resistance of nanocomposites operating in low-Earth orbits, the samples were exposed to atomic oxygen (AO) in the fluence range of (1.7–30) × 1020 cm−2. AO exposure results in mass loss of epoxy resin with carbon fillers: the erosion yields (Rm) are 1.07 × 10−23 g/atom and 1.21 × 10−23 g/atom for “Taunit-M″ and “Taunit-MD”, respectively. Diffuse and specular reflectance noticeably decreases after AO exposure which in their turn leads to increase of solar absorptance from 0.940 to 0.996 for “Taunit-M″ and from 0.944 to 0.992 for “Taunit-MD”. AO exposure also results in reduction of EMI shielding effectiveness from ∼5 dB to ∼4.2 dB and ∼4.96 dB for epoxy resin with “Taunit-M″ and “Taunit-MD”, respectively, in the frequency range of 8.2–12.4 GHz (X-band) at room temperature.