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Space Survivability of Main-Chain and Side-Chain POSS-Kapton Polyimides.
- Source :
-
AIP Conference Proceedings . 1/5/2009, Vol. 1087 Issue 1, p505-518. 14p. 6 Diagrams, 3 Charts, 2 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Kapton® polyimde (PI) is extensively used in solar arrays, spacecraft thermal blankets, and space inflatable structures. Upon exposure to atomic oxygen (AO) in low Earth orbit (LEO), Kapton® is severely degraded. An effective approach to prevent this erosion is chemically bonding polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) into the polyimide matrix by copolymerization of POSS-diamine with the polyimide monomers. POSS is a silicon and oxygen cage-like structure surrounded by organic groups and can be polymerizable. The copolymerization of POSS provides Si and O in the polymer matrix on the nano level. During POSS polyimide exposure to atomic oxygen, organic material is degraded and a silica passivation layer is formed. This silica layer protects the underlying polymer from further degradation. Ground-based studies and MISSE-1 and MISSE-5 flight results have shown that POSS polyimides are resistant to atomic-oxygen attack in LEO. In fact, 3.5 wt% Si8O11 main-chain POSS polyimide eroded about 2 μm during the 3.9 year flight in LEO, whereas 32 μm of 0 wt% POSS polyimide would have eroded within 4 mos. The atomic-oxygen exposure of main-chain POSS polyimides and new side-chain POSS polyimides has shown that copolymerized POSS imparts similar AO resistance to polyimide materials regardless of POSS monomer structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0094243X
- Volume :
- 1087
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- AIP Conference Proceedings
- Publication Type :
- Conference
- Accession number :
- 36332238
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3076863