NECST Home

Welcome to MIT's Nano-Engineered Composite aerospace STructures (NECST) Consortium public website. NECST Members should use the Members-Only link above to access additional material including prepublications, Intellectual Property (IP) information, and research personnel and theses. On this public page you will find an overview of the Consortium’s activities and journal articles and conference papers that have appeared, as well as NECST's work reported in the media.

NECST Director: Professor Brian L. Wardle

NECST formally launched in May 2007 during the first Members-only meeting on the MIT campus. We are pleased to be partnered with Airbus S.A.S., Boeing, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, Saab AB, and Spirit AeroSystems. The NECST industry Consortium is IP-generating, and Members have specific rights to both background and new IP. A Consortium Prospectus is available upon request.

SEM of necst logo fabricated from forests of carbon nanotubes

NECST Overview

The NECST Consortium’s technology focus is to improve the performance of advanced aerospace materials/structures through strategic use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) combined with traditional advanced composites to form hybrid architectures. Two primary 3D nano-engineered architectures are being explored and developed, both polymer-matrix based. The fabrication strategy involves novel synthesis of high-quality, long (several millimeters), aligned CNTs placed strategically in existing advanced composite systems. Early results have demonstrated that high-quality CNT/traditional hybrid composite laminates can be architected and fabricated at rates and scales that can be used in full-scale aerospace structures; this made the formation of the NECST industry Consortium imperative.

The unifying focus of the Consortium is improved performance of advanced aerospace structures and, as such, it is centered in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, leveraging the experience and contributions of an advanced composites laboratory (TELAMS) in existence for over 30 years, and we continue to collaborate with Dr. John Hart (now Prof. John Hart at the University of Michigan's Mechanical Engineering Department) on CNT processing and characterization topics. The involvement of the Precision Engineering Research Group in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering provides expertise in developing equipment and processes for high-rate manufacturing and large-scale integration of nano-engineered composites. The research of the Consortium spans topics from fundamental science (e.g., catalyst characteristics for CNT growth) to more applied research such as laminate level manufacturing and characterization, to such topics as environmental health and safety of nanostructured materials.

In addition to several MIT-based joint projects, the NECST group has collaborations with several leading academic group's from around the world:

Professor H. Thomas Hahn at his Multifunctional Composites Laboratory at UCLA

Professor Shigeo Maruyama at his Carbon Nanotube and Nano-Therm Laboratory at the Univ. of Tokyo

Professor Dimitrios Papavassiliou at his Computational Transport Processes group at the Univ. of Oklahoma

Website content and administrative questions: Mark Prendergast

SEM of necst logo fabricated from forests of carbon nanotubes

Media Notes:

"NanoBliss" a Nano Art website by A. John Hart

Aerospace America, December 2007, Structures pgs 80-81

Aerospace America, December 2006, Structures, pgs. 74-75

"Visions of the Future" (series website) is a new 3-part BBC documentary. In Part 3, "The Quantum Revolution", NECST researchers A. John Hart, and Stevie Steiner are interviewed by Dr. Michio Kaku about carbon nanotubes and how they grow.

Journal Articles:

Garcia, E.J., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L. and A. Slocum, “Fabrication of Composite Microstructures by Capillarity-driven Wetting of Aligned Carbon Nanotubes with Polymers”, Nanotechnology, Vol. 18, No. 16, April 2007, pages 165602 (11pp).

Garcia, E.J., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L. and A. Slocum, “Fabrication and Nanocompression Testing of Aligned CNT/Polymer Nanocomposites”, Advanced Materials, 19:2151-2156, August 2007.

Garcia, E.J., Wardle, B.L., Hart, A.J., and N. Yamamoto, “Fabrication and Multifunctional Properties of a Hybrid Laminate with Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Grown In Situ”, Composites Science & Technology, Vol. 68, No. 9, 2008, pp. 2034-2041.

Bello, D., Hart, A.J., Ahn, K., Hallock, M., Yamamoto, N., Garcia, E.J., Ellenbecker, E.J., and B.L. Wardle, “Particle Exposure Levels During CVD Growth and Subsequent Handling of Vertically-aligned Carbon Nanotube Films”, Carbon, Vol. 46, 2008, pp. 974-978.

Garcia, E.J., Hart, J., and B.L. Wardle, “Long Carbon Nanotubes Grown on the Surface of Fibers for Hybrid Composites”, AIAA Journal, Vol. 46, No.6, 2008, pp.1405-1412.

Wardle, B.L., Saito, D.S., Garcia, E.J., Hart, A.J., and R. Guzman deVilloria, “Fabrication and Characterization of Ultra-High Volume Fraction Aligned Carbon-Nanotube-Polymer Composites”, accepted to Advanced Materials, March 2008.

Garcia, E.J., Wardle, B.L., and A.J. Hart, “Joining Prepreg Composite Interfaces with Aligned Carbon Nanotubes”, Composites Part A, Vol. 39, 2008, pp. 1065-1070.

Conference Papers

Garcia, E.J., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L. and A. Slocum, “Fabrication and Testing of Long Carbon Nanotues Grwon on the Surface of Fibers for Hybrid Composites”, AIAA-2006-1854, 47th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Newport, RI, May 1-4, 2006.

Garcia, E.J., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L. and A. Slocum, “Aligned Carbon Nanotube Reinforcement of Ply Interfaces in Woven Composites”, AIAA-2007-2037, 48th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Honolulu, HA, April 23-26, 2007.

Garcia, E., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L., Slocum, A., and D.J. Shim “Aligned Carbon Nanotube Reinforcement of Graphite/epoxy Ply Interfaces”, 16th International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM), Kyoto Japan, July 8-13, 2007.

Yamamoto, N., Garcia, E., Hart, J., Wardle, B.L., and A. Slocum, “Multifunctional Characterization of Aligned CNT-Reinforced Hybrid Composites”, 16th International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM), Kyoto Japan, July 8-13, 2007.

Garcia, E.J., Wardle, B.L., Guzman de Villoria, R., Wicks, S., Ishiguro, K., Yamamoto, N., and A.J. Hart, “Aligned Carbon Nanotube Reinforcement of Advanced Composite Ply Interfaces”, AIAA-2008-1768, 49th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, April 7-10, 2008.

Saito, D., Wardle, B.L., Garcia, E.J., Megalini, L., Hart, A.J., and R. Guzman deVilloria, “Fabrication and Multifunctional Properties of High Volume Fraction Aligned Carbon Nanotube Polymeric Composites”, AIAA-2008-1769, 49th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, April 7-10, 2008.

Megalini, L., Saito, D., Garcia, E.J., Wardle, B.L., Hart, A.J., and O. Yaglioglu, “DC and AC Properties of Aligned Carbon Nanotube Forests and Polymeric Nanocomposites”, AIAA-2008-1854, 49th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, April 7-10, 2008.

Yamamoto, N., and B.L. Wardle, “Thermal and Electrical Properties of Hybrid Woven Composites Reinforced with Aligned Carbon Nantoubes”, AIAA-2008-1857, 49th AIAA Structures, Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, April 7-10, 2008. Best Student Paper, Jefferson Goblet Award.

Wicks, S., Yamamoto, N., Guzman deVilloria, R., Ishiguro, K., Garcia, E.J., Cebeci, H., Hart, A.J., and B.L. Wardle, "Fabrication of Nano-engineered Composites Reinforced with Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)", 2008 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Boston, MA, June 1-5, 2008.

Wardle, B.L., Bello, D., Ahn, K., Yamamoto, N., Guzman deVilloria, R., Hallock, M., Garcia, E.J., and A. John Hart, “Particle and Fiber Exposures During Machining of Hybrid Carbon-Nanotube Advanced Composites", Paper #M056, 2008 SAMPE Fall Technical Conference, Memphis, TN, Sep. 2008.

Cebeci, H., Guzman de Villoria, R., Wardle, B.L., Saito, D.S., Yamamoto, N., Ishiguro, K., Garcia, E.J., and A.J. Hart, “Capillarity-driven Wetting of Aligned Carbon-nanotubes in the Processing of Hybrid Advanced Composites", Paper # M057, 2008 SAMPE Fall Technical Conference, Memphis, TN, Sep. 2008.

Wardle, B.L., Garcia, E.J., Guzman deVilloria, R., Ishiguro, K., and S. Wicks, “Interlaminar Fracture Toughness of Laminates Reinforced with Aligned Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs): Model-Experimental Correlation”, accepted to 23rd Annual American Society for Composites (ASC) Conference, Memphis, TN, Sep. 2008.

Yamamoto, N., Duong, H. M., Wardle, B.L., Papavassiliou, D.V., and S. Maruyama "Simulation and Experimental Correlation of Thermal Conductivity in Variable Volume Fraction Aligned Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube Composites", accepted to ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (ASME IMECE), Boston MA, Oct. 31- Nov. 6, 2008.

Duong, H. M., Papavassiliou, D.V., Yamamoto, N., and B.L. Wardle, "Off-Lattice Monte Carlo Simulation of the Thermal Conductivity of Single-walled Carbon nanotube–Polymer Composites", accepted to ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (ASME IMECE), Boston MA, Oct. 31- Nov. 6, 2008.

Conference & Other Presentations:

November 2007, POSTER by Namiko Yamamoto displayed at 2007 Fall Meeting of Materials Research Society (MRS) in Boston

April 2007, Composites Australia Keynote, Gold Coast, Australia website

November 2007, MIT R&D Directors Conference, Plenary Presentation

November 2006, MIT R&D Directors Conference