Electrically conducitve adhesives for cfrp composites based on nickel nanostrands and carbon nanotubes

Nowadays satellite antennas (Fig. 1) are made of CFRP composites as they are light weight and display outstanding dimensional stability compared to metal structures. Conductive structural adhesives are needed to ensure electrical continuity of adhesively bonded parts and to eliminate supplemental time-consuming operations like interpanel jumper cabling or silver brazing. Recently we reported highly conductive epoxy composites based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [1, 2]. According to Hansen [3] nickel nanostrands (NiNSs) are a very promising filler to produce highly conductive structural adhesives. In the present study we investigate the influence of the nanofiller type and concentration on the adhesive mechanical and electrical performances.