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Vertically Aligned ZnO Nanowire Interleave for Enhanced Interlaminar Strength

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Navy
Contract: N68335-10-C-0065
Agency Tracking Number: N093-171-0707
Amount: $150,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N093-171
Solicitation Number: 2009.3
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2009
Award Year: 2010
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2010-01-26
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2011-04-28
Small Business Information
1716 South Sycamore
Mesa, AZ 85202
United States
DUNS: 831529941
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Saul Opie
 Research Scientist
 (480) 839-1236
 saulopie@yahoo.com
Business Contact
 Lisa Sodano
Title: President
Phone: (480) 839-1236
Email: hsodano@gmail.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

The proposed Phase I research effort will develop a novel technique to place vertically aligned ZnO nanowires in the interlaminar region of fiber reinforced composites. It is widely accepted that the interlaminar region of a composite presents one of the most challenging failure mechanisms to address. The aligned nanowires will be transferred to the tacky prepreg and used to provide out-of-plane reinforcement, crack bridging and control of the bond line thickness. The Co-PI recently demonstrated that ZnO nanowires grown on the surface of reinforcing fibers provided up to 3.5 times increase in interfacial strength while maintaining the fiber strength and increasing the composite strength. Based on our earlier findings we anticipate this technology will lead to significantly greater interlaminar strength while maintaining the in-plane properties. Our proposed methods are low cost, environmentally benign, compatible with prepreg processing, can be extended to a production-scale and do not require any advanced tooling or resin transfer processes. At the conclusion of the Phase 1 effort we will demonstrate the performance of the proposed technology and begin developing a commercial product. With the significant growth of the composites industry fueled by composite commercial aircraft we anticipate the resulting technology will have substantial commercialization potential.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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