Boron-doped diamond growth on carbon fibre: Enhancing the electrical conductivity

Carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CRFP) are extensively used in many industrial applications thanks to its mechanical properties and its low weight. Nevertheless, the orthotropic character of CRFP highly reduces its applications. The transversal electrical conductivity in CRFP is two orders poorer than in the longitudinal direction. To improve their electrical properties, this work proposes the use of polycrystalline boron doped diamond (BDD) as coating of the carbon fibres (CF). BDD coating is deposited on CF surface using microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system. The BDD coating forms a rigid conductive coating around the CF as a core-shell structure. Here, an electrical characterization of both, 12,000 filaments (a tow) and a single coated filament, are carried out in the longitudinal and cross-section directions. Macro, micro and local analysis using the Kelvin method, Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (C-AFM), and Scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy (sMIM), were carried out to evidence the improvement of the electrical properties. Macro measurement reveals that the BDD coating decreases to half the resistivity of the CF. The BDD coating raises the local electrical conductivity of the CF by an order of magnitude with respect to the uncoated ones. sMIM maps identified BDD locations in ring-like configurations.