Copper-Carbon Nanotubes Composite Materials for Lightning Strike Protections in Airplanes

Abstract

The structures of airplanes are nowadays including more and more non electrically conductive plastics parts. To mitigate the damages after lightning strike events, copper meshes are integrated into the fuselage to provide it with electrical conductivity. Yet, although copper has one of the best electrical and thermal conductivities, its density remains high compared to materials like Aluminium (8.96 g.m-3 for Copper ; 2.7 g-m-3 for Aluminium) and R&D efforts are needed to develop new materials with higher specific electrical conductivity and ampacity. In 2013, Subramaniam et al.1 reported the fabrication of Copper/Carbon nanotubes (Cu-CNTs) composites with a similar specific conductivity than the one of copper and an ampacity increased by two orders of magnitude.The talks will describe an original fabrication method of Cu-CNTs composites based on electroplating and entirely realized without any hazardous organic solvents. Their electrical behaviour (conductivity as well as ampacity) will be described as well as a first evaluation of their lightning strike protection (LSP) properties. The lightning strike damages observed on pristine and Cu-CNTs samples consist of concentric vaporized zones more or less extended depending of samples. Interestingly, for some Cu-CNTs composites, partial or no vaporization is observed with a preserved electrical conductivity of the samples.Subramaniam, C., Yamada, T., Kobashi, K. et al. One hundred fold increase in current carrying capacity in a carbon nanotube–copper composite. Nat Commun 4, 2202 (2013).