Composite materials based on Carbon Nanotubes for aerospace applications

Electrical and mechanical proper-ties of composite materials based on Carbon Nanotubes are considered for aerospace applications. Nanostructured materials gained great importance in the past decade, owing to their wide ranging potential applications in many areas, e.g. mechanical, structural, sensor, biomedical, electronics. Of particular interest are carbon nanotubes, which can be used as a main constituent of composite materials with exceptional mechanical and electrical properties, very suitable for aerospace applications, also due to their light weight, mechanical strength and flexibility. We present results obtained recently in our laboratories concerning the electrical and mechanical properties (including resilience measurement, stress analysis, conductivity) of carbon nanotubes we synthesized by arc discharge and other techniques, embedded in a polymer matrix.