Influence of silver nanowires on thermal and electrical behaviors of a poly(epoxy) coating for aeronautical application

Abstract

Thermal and electrical behaviors of a poly(epoxy) coating with high electrical conductivity used for aeronautic applications are investigated. The poly(epoxy) used is designed for resin transfer molding (RTM) applications, it have a low viscosity at room temperature (around 1 Pa s) and a high Tg (>160°C). This study details the influence of silver nanowires with a high aspect ratio, on the thermal behavior such as the relative degree of reaction α and the kinetics parameters thanks to dynamic and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry. Conductivity measurements of surface and volume have permitted to determine a very low percolation threshold at around 0.7% in volume. The value of electrical conductivity above the percolation threshold is upper than 102 S m−1 and the lowest surface resistivity was measured around 13 mΩ sq−1 both for 8% in volume of AgNWs. This kind of coating has a great interest for lightning strike protection of aircraft parts due to the high electrical conductivity obtained with a low overweight.