Nasa Tech Briefs - Materials

NASA Tech Briefs’ Materials Web page spotlights new engineering materials, coatings, and materials processing techniques, related primarily to ceramics, composites, plastics, and ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as published in NASA Tech Briefs magazine. The Tech Briefs describe applications of these materials in aerospace, defense, electronics, automotive, consumer products, and other major industries. Many of the Tech Briefs below are correlated to a Technical Support Package (TSP) or White Paper that can be downloaded free of charge.

Jun 2009

Polyimide-Foam/Aerogel Composites for Thermal Insulation

These composites may also afford enhanced acoustic attenuation.

Composites of specific types of polymer foams and aerogel particles or blankets have been proposed to obtain thermal insulation performance superior to those of the neat polyimide foams. These composites have potential to also provide enhanced properties for vibration dampening ...
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Yb₁₄MnSb₁₁ as a High- Efficiency Thermoelectric Material

This material could supplant the state-of-theart material, SiGe.

Yb₁₄MnSb₁₁ has been found to be well-suited for use as a p-type thermoelectric material in applications that involve hot-side temperatures in the approximate range of 1,200 to 1,300 K. The figure of merit that characterizes the thermal-to-electric ...
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Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids for Electrochemical Capacitors

A document discusses room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) used as electrolytes in carbon-nanotube-based, electrochemical, double-layer capacitors. Unlike the previous electrolyte (EtNB4 in acetonitrile), the RTIL used here does not produce cyanide upon thermal decomposition and does not have a moisture sensitivity.
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Ultra-Lightweight Self- Deployable Nanocomposite Structure for Habitat Applications

A document discusses self-deployable, rigidized structures that are ultra-lightweight and have gas barrier properties, space durability, and high impact resistance. Developed here are microcellular-foamed sandwich structures made from nanocomposite shape memory polymers (SMPs) with Cold-Hibernated Elastic Memory (CHEM) deployed technique for space structural components including space habitats. This type of ...
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