Studies On The Surface Metallization Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Used For Satellite Antenna

Recently, Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) is widely used in spacecraft structure, antenna components and so on. In the Low Earth Orbit, however, CFRP is susceptible to the corrosion of atomic oxygen in the space. The spacecraft antenna made of CFRP usually cracks and even fails in the space environment of thermal vacuum and extremely hot-cold cycle, which serious shorten the life of the spacecraft. In addition, the electrical conductivity of CFRP decreases remarkably due to the resin matrix, which degrade the properties of CFRP antenna, especially for the high-precision antenna in the mm-wavelength range. Therefore, metal coating at CFRP surface is proposed to enhance the corrosion resistant of the CFRP against attacks from space environment and to improve its electrical conductivity.In this work, the arc ion plating process is employed to deposit Al, Cu, Ti films on the CFRP matrix respectively. The structure, morphology, thickness, adhesion to the matrix, electrical resistance of the as-made metallic film are evaluated by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, Universal Material Testing Machine and Digital Four-probe Resistance Detector. The effects of space environment on the metal coated CFRP, such as atomic oxygen, thermal vacuum and extremely hot-cold cycle, are also evaluated by simulating experiments. The results showed that Al film and Ti film protect CFRP effectively from attacks of atomic oxygen, thermal vacuum and hot-cold cycle. The conductivity of Al film is better than the Ti film. Al film was proposed for the high conductivity and protective film, especially for the high-precision CFRP satellite antenna. Cu film cracks during experiments and is not suitable for CFRP protective coating in space environment.