The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is developing a ceramic precursor polymer grafted nanoparticle (or hairy nanoparticle, HNP) for manufacturing ceramic matrix composites. HNP is a hybrid material consisting of a solid nanoparticle core and a hair-like polymer shell surrounding it, the size of which is equivalent to a small virus. The new materials can be used to make aircraft parts made of ceramic matrix composites, such as jet engines.
In the manufacturing process of ceramic matrix composites, the materials used to bond the ceramic fibers together will shrink greatly and form cracks and pores. This problem has not been solved. It is necessary to use HNP with good fluidity to penetrate the ceramics. In order to fill the cracks and voids, in this project, the researchers used inorganic silicon polymer to replace the previous organic polymer such as polystyrene as the polymer shell of HNP. The results show that the previous filling material needs to go through 6-10 times of infiltration process, and the new filling material is expected to reduce the number of infiltrations by half, thus achieving faster production speed and lower production costs.