{"projectId":11534,"project":{"projectId":11534,"title":"Multifunctional Graphene Nanocomposite Foams for Space Applications","startDate":"2012-08-15","startYear":2012,"startMonth":8,"endDate":"2016-05-28","endYear":2016,"endMonth":5,"programId":69,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"STRG","isActive":true,"description":"<p> \tThe Space Technology Research Grants Program will accelerate the development of &quot;push&quot; technologies to support the future space science and exploration needs of NASA, other government agencies and the commercial space sector. Innovative efforts with high risk and high payoff will be encouraged. 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One novel nanomaterial is graphene which consists of sp2 covalently bonded carbon atoms arranged in a planar hexagonal structure. The graphene structure has excellent mechanical, thermal, barrier, flammability reducing and electrical properties. A procedure developed at Michigan State University is able to create graphene sheets 1-5 layers thick in diameters ranging from less than 1 micron to over 100 microns. These graphene nanoplatelets show comparable properties to single graphene layers but are in a more robust form and can be produced at cost competitive prices compared to other additives and fillers. Polymer foams are one such material that can benefit from the addition of graphene nanoplatelets. The addition of these graphene nanoplatelets to a polymer foam offer the potential for improved mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, at an overall lower cost that allows the foam to maintain its unique cellular structure and low density. A foam material with such combination of properties has potential applications in space technology; as the resulting nanocomposite foam would have ranges of stiffness and resilience that are outside the limits of pure polymer foams, be flame resistant, demonstrate electrical and thermal conductivity and yet be both light weight and cost effective space stable materials. This research is directed at understanding the physical and chemical challenges associated with embedding graphene nanoplatelets in the struts and cell walls of a polyurethane foam in order to achieve percolation. Polyurethane foam can be synthesized using a simple process involving the combination of two components, an isocyanate and a polyol blend that contains a liquid blowing agent, that upon mixing form urethane and evolve gas. The nanoplatelets can be added to the precursors prior to mixing to ensure adequate dispersion. Reaching the percolation threshold requires balancing the particle size, surface area and concentration that allows for the formation of the nanoplatelet network but keeps the precursors viscosities low enough to allow the foam to rise. This also depends heavily on achieving and maintaining a good dispersion through the conjoined effort of mechanical dispersion techniques and an investigation on the effect of functionalizing the nanoplatelets. These studies will contain important information for future technologies involving the use of graphene nanoplatelets to structure nanocomposites. Investigating each of these aspects will help to determine the best GnP selection and dispersion methods to create the optimal multifunctional nanocomposite foam for space applications and can be easily translated to other industries by tailoring the constituents.","benefits":"These studies will contain important information for future technologies involving the use of graphene nanoplatelets to structure nanocomposites. 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Innovative efforts with high risk and high payoff will be encouraged. The program is composed of two competitively awarded components.</p> ","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":69,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36658,"title":"Space Technology Research Grants","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"STRG"},"description":"Materials combined with a small amount of nanoparticles offer new possibilities in the synthesizing of multifunctional materials. 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A foam material with such combination of properties has potential applications in space technology; as the resulting nanocomposite foam would have ranges of stiffness and resilience that are outside the limits of pure polymer foams, be flame resistant, demonstrate electrical and thermal conductivity and yet be both light weight and cost effective space stable materials. This research is directed at understanding the physical and chemical challenges associated with embedding graphene nanoplatelets in the struts and cell walls of a polyurethane foam in order to achieve percolation. Polyurethane foam can be synthesized using a simple process involving the combination of two components, an isocyanate and a polyol blend that contains a liquid blowing agent, that upon mixing form urethane and evolve gas. The nanoplatelets can be added to the precursors prior to mixing to ensure adequate dispersion. Reaching the percolation threshold requires balancing the particle size, surface area and concentration that allows for the formation of the nanoplatelet network but keeps the precursors viscosities low enough to allow the foam to rise. This also depends heavily on achieving and maintaining a good dispersion through the conjoined effort of mechanical dispersion techniques and an investigation on the effect of functionalizing the nanoplatelets. These studies will contain important information for future technologies involving the use of graphene nanoplatelets to structure nanocomposites. Investigating each of these aspects will help to determine the best GnP selection and dispersion methods to create the optimal multifunctional nanocomposite foam for space applications and can be easily translated to other industries by tailoring the constituents.","benefits":"These studies will contain important information for future technologies involving the use of graphene nanoplatelets to structure nanocomposites. Investigating each of these aspects will help to determine the best GnP selection and dispersion methods to create the optimal multifunctional nanocomposite foam for space applications and can be easily translated to other industries by tailoring the constituents.","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","destinationType":["Mars"],"trlBegin":2,"trlCurrent":3,"trlEnd":3,"favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"programContacts":[],"endDateString":"May 2016","startDateString":"Aug 2012"},"technologyOutcomeDate":"2016-05-28","technologyOutcomePath":"Closed_Out","details":"This research focused on the development of light-weight materials for applications in aerospace technologies. Light-weight materials are especially attractive for aerospace industry to help reduce payloads. In addition to decreasing the actual weight of the material another way to gain weight savings is by making the material multifunctional thereby reducing the number of materials needed. Recent research has demonstrated the potential of nanoparticles to increase the functionality of common materials. Graphene is an especially promising nanomaterial because of its inherent multifunctionality. The material has been shown to have excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties and has improved the corresponding properties to the materials to which it has been added. In this research graphene nanoplatelets, which consists of a stack of a few layers of graphene, was added to polymeric matrices with cellular structures to decrease the density, and add multifunctionality while maintaining overall performance.  The first matrix material was polyurethane, a very common polymer having tunable properties and an inexpensive price. This material can also be utilized as a foam formed by a variety of processes. This project focused on the use of a chemical blowing agent that allows the liquid to expand as it polymerizes. In this way the GnP was added to the liquid precursor polymer and dispersed in the ribbed structure of the foam. GnP is a commercial material that comes in many different sizes all of which contain functional edge groups. These edge groups were attached with either molecules or polymer chains to improve the bonding between the GnP nanoparticles in the matrix. In any composite, having good bonding in the interface region is key to having good mechanical performance. Utilizing different sizes and edge-groups attached to the GnP prior to being added to the polymer improved the compressive strength, elastic modulus, electrical properties and dielectric performance while in general also improving the thermal stability of the overall nanocomposite foam.  The amount of improvement, however, was dependent on the type and especially size of GnP used and affected the different properties unevenly. Large nanoplatelets with the largest aspect ratio demonstrated the most improvement to the electrical and dielectric properties and increased the reflectance of the nanocomposite when exposed to electromagnetic (EM) waves. These same large particles did not improve the mechanical  performance the way the smaller platelets did and were much more effective at increasing the ability of the nanocomposite foam to absorb EM waves resulting in improvement of the EM interference shielding effectiveness of the material. These results did demonstrate the ability of only a small amount of nanoparticles of 8 wt% or less to change the overall performance of the foam improving the multifunctionality of the material while not sacrificing its light-weight. The variable properties of the nanocomposite suggests that these materials would be able to be tailored to specific applications.","infoText":"Closed out","infoTextExtra":"Project closed out","isIndirect":false,"infusionPretty":"","isBiDirectional":false,"technologyOutcomeDateString":"May 2016","technologyOutcomeDateFullString":"May 2016","technologyOutcomePartnerPretty":"","technologyOutcomePathPretty":"Closed Out","technologyOutcomeRationalePretty":""}],"primaryImage":{"file":{"fileExtension":"jpg","fileId":355616,"presignedUpload":false,"fileSizeString":"0 Byte"},"libraryItemId":354627,"description":"Project Image   Multifunctional Graphene Nanocomposite Foams for Space Applications","projectId":11534,"publishedDateString":"","entryDateString":"","libraryItemTypePretty":"","modifiedDateString":""},"libraryItems":[{"file":{"fileExtension":"jpg","fileId":355616,"fileName":"11534-1363193548424","fileSize":194342,"objectId":354627,"objectType":"libraryItemFiles","presignedUpload":false,"fileSizeString":"189.8 KB"},"files":[{"fileExtension":"jpg","fileId":355616,"fileName":"11534-1363193548424","fileSize":194342,"objectId":354627,"objectType":"libraryItemFiles","presignedUpload":false,"fileSizeString":"189.8 KB"}],"libraryItemId":354627,"title":"11534-1363193548424.jpg","description":"Project Image   Multifunctional Graphene Nanocomposite Foams for Space Applications","libraryItemType":"Image","projectId":11534,"isPrimary":true,"internalOnly":false,"publishedDateString":"","entryDateString":"01/22/25 01:10 AM","libraryItemTypePretty":"Image","modifiedDateString":"01/09/24 07:57 PM"},{"files":[],"libraryItemId":354632,"title":"Project Website","libraryItemType":"Link","url":"https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/home/index.html","projectId":11534,"internalOnly":false,"publishedDateString":"","entryDateString":"01/22/25 01:10 AM","libraryItemTypePretty":"Link","modifiedDateString":"10/25/24 02:23 PM"}],"states":[{"abbreviation":"MI","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Michigan","stateTerritoryId":34,"isTerritory":false}],"endDateString":"May 2016","startDateString":"Aug 2012"}}