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Active TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
NASA places importance on High/Ultra-High Temperature Materials, Materials for Combined Extreme Environments, and Ceramic Matrix Composite Processes. Emerging space applications including reusable re-entry vehicles, thermal protection systems, and radiation protection systems for long-duration space missions on the Moon, Mars, and Venus require the development of lightweight ceramic composites with enhanced thermal stability, radiation shielding capabilities, and micro-meteoroid impact resistance, necessitating ceramics with high strength and fracture toughness at ultra-high temperatures and in extreme environments. Ceramics are intrinsically brittle, hence much research has been done on improving the strength of these ceramics by producing ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). Nanofibers, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), due to their good mechanical and thermal properties as well as multifunctionalities like radiation shielding, piezo-electricity, and piezo-resistivity, are advantaged reinforcement due to their higher crystallinity and their 1000X higher surface-to-volume ratio compared to microfibers. Bulk ceramics with enhanced fracture toughness have been engineered via nanofibers with limitations in processing and scale, particularly both the length and volume fraction of nanofibers. In this proposal, a new platform for creating tough and strong long and aligned nanofiber-reinforced bulk ceramics at high-volume fractions (50 vol%) and nanofiber lengths far beyond what is currently possible, according to recent literature, is proposed. The fabricating process involves synthesizing aligned long nanofibers, horizontally aligning them using a knockdown process, infusing them with polymer-derived ceramic precursors, stacking them into laminates, and applying temperature and pressure to fabricate the CMC with matrices such as pyrolytic carbon, silicate ceramics, and metal carbides and borides, targeting good mechanical and multifunctional properties. This proposal will cover creating a novel scaled fabrication method for high toughness and strength CMCs, characterization and testing of the ultra-high temperature CMCs for quality and mechanical properties, and extreme environment testing of the CMC for space applications.
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