Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2021)
Recipient: HUNTSMAN NANOCOMP LLC
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2018-09-26 to 2022-07-29
Current total value of award: $10370129
Description: DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH STRENGTH CARBON NANOTUBE YARN FOR STRUCTURAL COMPOSITES STRUCTURAL COMPOSITES WITH MECHANICAL PROPERTIES THAT ARE MULTIPLE TIMES THOSE OF STATE-OF-THE-ART (SOA) CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES (CFRP) CAN YIELD SIGNIFICANT SYSTEMS LEVEL BENEFITS FOR AEROSPACE VEHICLES.  CARBON NANOTUBES (CNT) HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO ENABLE MASS SAVINGS DUE TO NANOSCALE PROPERTIES THAT FAR OUTPERFORM THOSE DOCUMENTED FOR CARBON FIBERS HOWEVER, RETAINING SUPERIOR NANOSCALE PROPERTIES IN BULK HAS BEEN CHALLENGING. NASA INVESTMENTS UNDER THE GAME CHANGING DEVELOPMENT (GCD) PROGRAM FROM 2012 - 2015 YIELDED IMPROVEMENTS IN NANOCOMP TECHNOLOGIES INC. S CNT MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT PRODUCED CNT COMPOSITES WITH SPECIFIC STRENGTH AND SPECIFIC MODULUS NEARLY COMPETITIVE WITH UNIDIRECTIONAL CARBON FIBER COMPOSITES DESPITE THE NANOCOMPOSITE BEING FAR FROM OPTIMAL. OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, NANOCOMP TECHNOLOGIES, INC. CONTINUED TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP THE MANUFACTURING PARAMETERS TO THE POINT WHERE THEY WERE ABLE TO REALIZE AN APPROXIMATE 50% INCREASE IN SPECIFIC TENSILE STRENGTH OF THE YARN OVER THE STRENGTH ATTAINED AT THE END OF THE GCD NANOTECHNOLOGY PROJECT IN 2015. THE CNT YARN STRENGTH HAS BEEN ATTAINED ON AN EXPERIMENTAL SCALE AND SHALL BE IMPROVED FURTHER TO ENABLE THE FABRICATION OF CNT COMPOSITES WITH STRENGTHS THAT MEET NASA S GOALS IN LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES.  TO SUPPORT THIS APPLICATION OF HIGH PERFORMANCE CNT MATERIAL, THE MATERIAL FORMATS NEED TO BE AVAILABLE IN LARGE VOLUMES WITH CONSISTENT QUALITY TO PERMIT THE PROCESSING OPTIMIZATION NECESSARY TO PRODUCE PANEL LEVEL COMPOSITES WITH THE PROPERTIES BEING SOUGHT. THIS SBIR PHASE III EFFORT TO PURSUE COMMERCIALIZATION OBJECTIVES RESULTING FROM THE PREVIOUS SBIR PHASE III RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING COST EFFICIENCIES IN PRODUCTION. THE TECHNOLOGY MATURATION OF THE CARBON NANOTUBE (CNT) MATERIAL, THE CNT FORMATS DELIVERED WILL BE EVALUATED FOR NASA S MISSION NEEDS IN THE USE OF LIGHTWEIGHT AEROSPACE STRUCTURES, STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS, AND THE FABRICATION OF PROTOTYPE AEROSPACE ARTICLES.