Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have received considerable interest within recent years as an alternative to carbon nanotubes (CNTs). BNNTs offer significantly different properties in specific relation to high temperature structural applications. BNNTs combine high specific strength and stiffness with a wide range of unique properties, such as high thermal stability (high oxidation temperature), high thermal conductivity, resistance to chemical modification, high strength and stiffness, lightweight and piezoelectric properties. Transitioning these excellent nanoscale mechanical properties to macroscale BNNT based fibers proves to be one of the major challenges associated with their use in high-temperature structural applications. The fibers typically exhibit low fiber strength due to the lack of interactions with other tubes in a parent matrix. Although chemically inert, our research has primarily looked into surface alteration and/or functionalization of these nanotubes to implement into polymer composites for mechanical property improvement of said composites for use in aerospace applications. In this work, we investigate the covalent surface functionalization of BNNTs with alcohols and cross-linkable moieties, which may be used to form high strength chemically crosslinked BNNT fibers. The work presented here highlights our efforts for reproducible functionalization using literature and new methodologies. A variety of functionalization strategies have been examined, including reduction chemistry and acid treatments with results showing successful modification containing a variable amount of chemical functionalities.

Functionalization of boron nitride nanotubes for aerospace applications

256th National Meeting (2018)

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