Atomic Oxygen

Experimental Tests of Ribbon in Atomic Oxygen

Atomic oxygen erosion of the ribbon is one of the major environmental issues. It is expected to eat away at the carbon nanotubes possibly at microns per month. With spun fibers having diameters of tens of microns this will seriously reduce the strength on a short timescale. To eliminate this issue a metal coating on the fibers has been proposed. A coating of even a few microns of gold, nickel or several other metals will stop the atomic oxygen. The current major issue includes what the erosion rate is, how to do the coating completely, and recoating and maintaining the coating.

Specific Work

1. Compile the prior work on erosion of CNTs and related materials
2. Model how erosion will degrade fibers
3. Compile work on coating CNTs with metals
4. Compile data on and model how the coating will act on a ribbon that is this unique, being stretched and released, and being run over by climbers