Research Summaries

Back Exploring Aerosol-Through-Plasma Production of BN Nanotubes

Fiscal Year 2019
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Energy Academic Group (EAG)
Investigator(s) Phillips, Jonathan
Sponsor Department of Defense Space (DoD)
Summary There are plethora of space system applications for high quality, moderate cost, boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) yarns, and tapes. Examples: i) Lighter/stronger BN reinforced parts would also provide enhanced radiation protection. Ii) As a replacement for Teflon in co-axial cables would significantly reduce weight, and stray capacitance, while increasing fire resistance cord flexibility. Wider application of this material still requires significant improvements in industrial scale processes. Discovery Research, performed by NPS faculty and students in collaboration with Boronite, Inc. will be directed at small scale research of plasma production as an alternative to the current high temperature furnace methods. The overall goal will be improved performance and affordability of space based systems by enabling the production of a disruptive new material, BNNT. This supports the Advanced Systems and Technology Strategic Objective of “Perform Disruptive Research” and the main technical domain area of “Discovery Research”. The specific goals will be; i) to determine if plasma production of BNNT from non-toxic powder precursors is a realistic possibility and, ii) to provide initial information on the impact of various operating parameters on the production rates, BNNT quality, etc. Specifically, the focus will be on determining the impact of operating parameters on the character (e.g. distributions of diameter, length) and production rates of BNNT synthesized using the Aerosol-Through-Plasma (A-T-P) approach. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy at NPS will be primary characterization tools
Keywords Aerosol Microwave Plasma boron nnaotubes
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal