TY - CONF A1 - Greenhalgh, E.S. A1 - Ankersen, J. A1 - Asp, L. E. A1 - Bismarck, A. A1 - Fontana, Q.P.V. A1 - Houlle, M. A1 - Kalinka, Gerhard A1 - Kucernak, A. A1 - Mistry, M. A1 - Nguyen, S. A1 - Qian, H. A1 - Shaffer, M.S.P. A1 - Shirshova, N. A1 - Steinke, J.H.G. A1 - Wienrich, Malte T1 - Mechanical and microstructural characterisation of multifunctional structural power composites N2 - Although the inherent anisotropy of polymer composites has presented daunting technical challenges, these materials now offer engineers considerable opportunities for efficient structural design. More recently, the advent of multifunctional composites which can fulfill more than one role within a system has attracted considerable interest, providing designers with exciting opportunities to innovate. Of particular interest here are structural power composites, which simultaneously carry mechanical load whilst storing/delivering electrical energy. Although the development of these composites is highly challenging, often with conflicting constituent requirements, the STORAGE consortium has had considerable success in the development of these materials for automotive applications. The focus of this paper is structural supercapacitors, the basic architecture of a single cell of which is shown in Fig. 1. This entails two carbon fibre woven lamina (electrodes) which sandwich a glass fibre woven lamina (separator), all of which is embedded within a multifunctional matrix (electrolyte). This architecture has been the focus of the research to date, leading to components such as that shown in Fig.1 having been fabricated. This paper reports on the mechanical properties and microstructures of the different reinforcement and matrix combinations for structural supercapacitors. T2 - ICCM19 - 19th International conference on composite materials CY - Montreal, Canada DA - 28.07.2013 KW - Structural electrolyte KW - Multifunctional supercapacitor KW - Fractography KW - Ionic conductivity KW - Mechanical properties PY - 2013 SP - 2228 EP - 2237 AN - OPUS4-29272 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -