Correlation between electrical conductivity and manufacturing processes of nanofilled carbon fiber reinforced composites

This paper describes the difference on the electrical performance of carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRCs) when two different Resin Film Infusion (RFI) manufacturing techniques are used. For the panel obtained by bulk infusion the measured in plane and out of plane electrical conductivities were 2.0 × 104 S/m and 3.9 S/m respectively and for the panel prepared using the traditional resin film infusion the values were 1.1 × 104 S/m and 1.7 S/m respectively. Morphological investigations on the sections of etched panels have highlighted that this difference in the electrical conductivity was strictly related to the different distribution of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) between the carbon fibers (CFs) of the plies.