Abstract
Carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) can be found as structural components in various space applications, including the field of ‘gossamer’ structures used as deployable masts, antennas or hinges. Many of these applications are missions in low Earth orbit (LEO), which is a particularly hazardous environment for polymers and organic materials, such as epoxy resins used in CFRP manufacturing. The incorporation of silicon derivatives in epoxy resin based CFRPs in order to create hybrid organicinorganic networking has been suggested as a way to prolong the life span of ultra-thin composite structures. Two ways of modification were considered during this study; incorporation of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanoparticles to create so called nanocomposites, and a mixture of POSS with a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) in order to achieve a smooth, silicon-rich protective surface. Both mono-functional and octa-functional POSS were selected and their compatibility with aliphatic amine/epoxy resin system was evaluated. The conducted experiment was inspired by the Design of Experiments (DoE) theory to validate the degradation of properties. The suggested method allows the magnitude of individual effects that contribute to the composite ageing and the effectiveness of various silicon derivatives to be evaluated. The results of this study contribute to the development of protection strategies which could help lower the rate of LEO induced degradation of ultra-thin CFRP masts.