Prospects of Intercalated Graphite Fibre Use for Electrical Power Transmission in Solar Power Satellites SERGE FLANDROIS, CLAUDE MESCHI & PIERRE DELHAES Summary Intercalation of metal chlorides in various graphite fibres is examined. Measurements of electrical conductivity, mechanical properties and stability tests show that some intercalated fibres have good prospects for electrical power transmission in solar power satellites. There is a considerable interest in graphite fibres for applications requiring light, strong and chemically inert materials. A new physics based on intercalated graphite fibres is currently under development because of the possible application of those fibres to electrical power transmission. The prospects for intercalated fibres are based upon the following characteristics: • enhanced electrical conductivity (high conductivity with a low density material); • weak temperature resistance coefficient; • good mechanical properties (without great degradation after intercalation); • chemical stability (in air, in vacuo and against temperature and moisture). This research is supported by the significant progress which has been made in the past few years towards the production of highly conductive carbon fibres and towards the preparation of graphite intercalation compounds with chemical stability and low electrical resistivity. In general the intercalation process is accompanied by an electronic charge transfer from the guest molecules (donors) to the host graphite or from graphite to the guest molecules (acceptors). This effect induces a large increase in the number of charge carriers, which is associated with a smaller decrease of their mean mobility. The net result is a conductivity enhancement of the graphite layers which can reach 10 to 15 times the conductivity of pristine material. Owing to the low density (~2g/cm3) of carbon fibres, the replacement of copper by these fibres would be very interesting economically by considerably lowering the weight of electrical cables in the satellites. In this paper, we first present the different carbon fibres which can be used for intercalation. A second part is devoted to a review of chemically stable intercalated fibres (mainly with metal halides), together with a presentation of our own results. Serge Flandrois, Claude Meschi and Pierre Delhaes, Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, CNRS, Domaine Universitaire de Bordeaux I, 33405 Talence, France.
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