Influence of space environment on the fiber reinforced nano composite material performance

Nano composite epoxy based composites were fabricated with different nano scale additives with a commonly used weight percent (wt. %). The candidate additives are Multi-wall carbon nano-tubes (MWCNTs), Alumina (AL2O3), and three different types of graphene (G-CD270, G-33C and G-24N). Ultra-sonication and homogenization were used to uniformly disperse the nano additives into epoxy. Herein, studying the effect of the exposed space threats on the candidate nano composite materials, these space threats due to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was characterized by high vacuum (~5x10-5 Torr.), and atomic oxygen (AO), (flux ~1.5x1021 AO/cm2) in the presence of Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) with a radiation intensity equals 410 mW/cm2 (around 10 Suns). The mass loss (TML), collected volatile condensable materials (CVCM) and water vapor regained (WVR) due to mention vacuum condition were measured. In addition, the mass loss and erosion rate of the exposure to a synergetic effect of AO and VUV were evaluated, finally, the various specimen were studied by Fourier Transmission Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR). The candidate materials shows an improvement behavior under the LEO threats with the nano additives, due to FTIR the released gasses from the materials are not critical so, the materials with the nano additives with various values.