Methods for Intercalating and Exfoliating Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed a number of materials and methods to optimize the performance of nanomaterials by making them tougher, more resistant, and easier to process. Glenn's scientists are generating critical improvements at all stages of nanomaterial production, from finding new ways to produce nanomaterials, to purifying them to work more effectively with advanced composites, to devising innovative techniques to incorporate them into matrices, veils, and coatings. These advances can be used to deposit protective coatings for textile-based composite materials, layer carbon nanotubes to add reinforcement, upgrade the properties of carbon ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), and integrate nanomaterial fibers into polymer matrix composites (PMCs). The field of nanomaterials is expanding rapidly, and NASA's Glenn Research Center is just as rapidly creating newer and better ways to deploy nanomaterials in industry and research.