Research On Graphene Modified Cyanate Ester Resin Matrix Composite And Its Resistance To Electron And Proton Irradiation

Cyanate ester resin has been widely applied in the aerospace field. However, its development was limited by its shortage of poor tenacity. In this paper, in order to widespread its application for aerospace, graphene was incorporated into cynante ester resin to enhacne its toughness. This work will provide experimental and theoretical basis for the selection of structural materials for the spacecraft.The strength property, thermal property and dimensional stability of the graphene modified cyanate ester cast before and after carbon fiber reinforcement were studied. The results show that, when the addition of the graphene is 0.6%, the toughening effect of GE can reach the highest. The tensile, bending and compression strength of cyanate ester cast was increased by 18%, 12% and 34%, respectively. And the tensile, bending and interlaminar shear strength of M40/CE composites was increased by 17%, 10% and 15%, respectively. The DSC result of cyanate ester showed that the glass transition temperature and the temperature resistance of cyanate ester was enhanced by the modification with graphene. The thermal expansion coefficient test of cyanate ester cast and M40/GE-CE composites showed that their thermal expansion coefficients were decreased, indicating that graphene was helpful to improve the dimension stability.The resistance to electron and proton irradiation under vacuum of cyanate ester cast and M40/GE-CE composites was also studied by the simulator for space environment. The results showed that the resistance to electron and proton irradiation of cynante ester was enhanced by graphene. The radiation damage mostly occurred in the cyanate ester matrix, resulted from the electrostatic discharge, crosslingking and degradation effects. In the case of comprehensive irradiation of electrons and protons, the fluence threshold was 1.0×1016e(4.0×1015p)cm-2. When the fluence was less than threshold, cross-lingking could predominate in the radiation damage and the mechanical properties of M40/CE-GE composites increased with the increasing fluence. When the irradiation fluence exceeded the threshold, the degradation effect might be dominant and the interface was hurt slightly. The tensile, bending and interlaminar shear strength of M40/CE were decreased in various extent. The discharge phenomena increased with the increase of irradiation fluence. The electron paramagnetic resonance analysis indicated that the content of free radicals in cyanate ester cast increased linearly with the increase of irradiation, while the content of free radicals in CE/GE increased nonlinearly, with its growth rate tending to zero gradually. The surface roughness of the cyanate ester cast body dropped first and then increased with the increasing irradiation fluence, while the absorption peak strength of the functional groups in CE or GE/CE firstly raised and then decreased.