SBIR Phase II: Tough polymer composite materials through iLAMB, or interlaminar modifications through master batching

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是帮助迎来一个新的材料消费时代。虽然金属已经使用了数百年，但复合材料是相当新的，但可以承受比钢更多的磨损。该项目旨在通过使复合材料更持久或减轻更多重量来进一步推进复合材料。这将使发动机具有更好的燃油效率，允许更轻的假肢，或实现可靠，耐用的复合汽车框架。MITO希望通过引入具有竞争力和专有的树脂改性纳米添加剂来帮助所有这些行业，这些添加剂可以提高耐用性和韧性，减轻重量，并可以集成到常见的复合材料制造工艺中，包括灌注模具和预浸料。有了这些潜力，估计该项目可以占据目前价值38亿美元的全球添加剂市场的大约5%，将材料科学定位于用纳米解决方案解决复合材料行业最大的问题。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二期项目将扩大基于氧化石墨烯（GO）和多面体低聚倍半硅氧烷（POSS）的混合纳米填料的规模。到千克数量，并生产具有反应性部分的纳米填料，所述反应性部分在各种树脂中完全相容和可分散，这在以前从未尝试过。第一阶段项目成功实现了所有技术目标。MITO添加剂将通过母料工艺添加到环氧树脂或乙烯基酯或聚酯基质中，以在极低的添加水平（约0.1至0.2%重量）下将复合材料的层间断裂韧性提高70%以上，而无需对当前制造工艺进行任何更改。建议对现有的杂化纳米填料进行规模化，通过在填料和母料中引入匹配的反应性基团，开发与环氧树脂、乙烯基酯树脂和聚酯树脂具有更好相容性的新型杂化纳米填料，使层间断裂韧性提高100%以上。将对固化的母料和复合材料进行挠曲、冲击和SENB断裂测试以及XRD和SEM表征。将对复合材料样品进行弯曲、双悬臂梁断裂和拉伸测试，以优化纳米填料含量和主配料工艺。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to help usher in a new age of material consumption. While metals have been used for hundreds of years, composites are fairly new but can withstand even more wear and tear than steel. This project is aimed to advance composites even further by making them last longer or shed more weight. This will enable engines to have better fuel efficiency, allow lighter prosthetics, or achieve dependable, durable composite automobile frames. MITO hopes to aid all of these industries with the introduction of competitive and proprietary resin modifying nanoaddtives that enhance durability and toughness, reduce weight, and can be integrated into common composite manufacturing processes, including infusion molds and pre-pregs. With these potentials, it is estimated that this project could capture roughly 5% of the worldwide additive market currently worth $3.8 billion dollars, positioning material science to solve the composite industry's biggest problems with nano-sized solutions.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will scale up hybrid nano-fillers based on graphene oxide (GO) and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) to kilogram quantities and produce nano-fillers that have reactive moieties that are exactly compatible and dispersible in various resins, which has never been attempted before. The Phase I project successfully met all the technical goals. MITO additives will be added to epoxy or vinyl ester or polyester matrices through a Master Batch process to enhance the interlaminar fracture toughness of composite by more than 70% at extremely low addition levels (~0.1 to 0.2% by weight) without any changes in current manufacturing processes. It is proposed to scale up the existing hybrid nano-fillers, develop novel hybrid nano-fillers with better compatibility with epoxy, vinyl ester and polyester resins by introducing matching reactive groups into the fillers and Master Batching so that interlaminar fracture toughness can be improved by more than 100%. Flexure, Impact and SENB fracture tests, and XRD as well as SEM characterization will be performed on the cured Master Batches and composites. Flexure, double cantilever beam fracture and tension tests will be performed on composite samples to optimize the nanofiller content and the Master Batching process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.