5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator

Home Journals Books Conferences News AboutUs Jobs

JournalMenu>> OpenJournalofCompositeMaterials Abstract

Vol.4No.3(2014),ArticleID:47610,8pages FullTextPDF
Indexing DOI:10.4236/ojcm.2014.43016 FullTextHTML
ViewPapers FullTextXML
Aims&Scope ElectricalShortingbetweentheCarbon FullTextePUB
EditorialBoard FiberClothElectrodesofStructural LinkedReferences
Guideline CapacitorswithaGlassFiberCloth HowtoCitethisArticle
ArticleProcessingCharges
Separator*
PaperSubmission

OJCMSubscription AkiraTodoroki1,HirokoShiomi2,YoshihiroMizutani1,Yoshiro

FreeNewsletterSubscription Suzuki1

MostpopularpapersinOJCM 1DepartmentofMechanicalSciencesofEngineering,TokyoInstituteofTechnology,Tokyo,Japan

PublicationEthicsStatement
AboutOJCMNews
FrequentlyAskedQuestions
2TokyoInstituteofTechnology,Tokyo,Japan
Email:atodorok@ginza.mes.titech.ac.jp
Copyright2014byauthorsandScientificResearchPublishingInc.

ThisworkislicensedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionInternationalLicense(CCBY).
OpenSpecialIssues
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
PublishedSpecialIssues

SpecialIssuesGuideline

Received13June2014revised28June2014accepted7July2014

ABSTRACT

Multifunctional composites that have the ability to store or generate energy have
attracted huge attention recently. One type of multifunctional composite is a structural
capacitor that uses carbon fiber cloth as electrodes separated by glassfiber cloth.
However, such structural capacitors are difficult to fabricate reliably because electrical
shortssometimesformbetweentheelectrodes.Inthepresentstudy,weinvestigatethe
mechanism of electrical shorting in such capacitors, which allows us to propose an
improved fabrication process to prevent electrical shorting between the carboncloth
electrodes.Infraredthermographyrevealsthatelectricalshortingbetweentheelectrodes
is caused by contact between the carbonfiber electrodes. Such contacts are formed by
movement of the glass fibers of the separator during curing, which is induced by epoxy
resinflow.Precuringoftheglassfiberclothseparatortoasuitabledegreeensuresthat
theelectricalinsulationbetweencarbonfiberelectrodesisreliable.

Keywords:Polymer Composites, Multifunctional Composites, Electrical Properties, Structural

Capacitor

1.Introduction

Multifunctional composites that have the ability to store or generate energy have recently been
developedandhaveattractedagreatdealofattention[1].Onetypeofmultifunctionalcomposite
is a structural capacitor that uses carbon fiber fabric as electrodes. Although the total energy

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 1/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator
storage of a capacitor is not larger than that of a battery, a capacitor exhibits less degradation
during chargedischarge cycles than a battery. As a result, structural capacitors have been
investigated as an energy storage method for energy regeneration systems such as automobiles.
Forasmall,lightweightvehicle,itiscumbersometoloadacapacitorinthelimitedspaceavailable,
soastructuralcapacitorisanattractivesolutiontosavespace.Structuralcapacitorshavetherefore
recentlybeendevelopedbyseveralresearchgroups[2][7].

Inastructuralcapacitorusingcarbonfiberclothaselectrodes,theelectrodesneedtoelectricallybe
separatedbyaseparatorsuchasasheetofpaper,filmorglassfibercloth[2][7].However,using
afilmorpaperasaseparatorreduceslongtermreliabilitybecauseitisdifficulttoachieveperfect
bonding between the film and electrodes. Therefore, for largescale structures, glassfiber cloth is
an attractive practical option to separate electrodes. Using glassfiber cloth as a separator means
the minimum distance between the electrodes is larger than the thickness of the cloth, so the
electriccapacitanceisnotsufficientlylargeinaparallelplatecapacitor.Theelectriccapacitancecan
beimprovedwhenanelectricaldoublelayercapacitorisemployed[6][7].

A structural capacitor with a glassfiber fabric separator is easy to fabricate. However, sometimes
thecarbonfiberclothwillelectricallyshortevenwhenglassfiberclothisusedasaseparator.Inthe
presentstudy,electricalshortingisconsideredfirst.Amechanismofelectricalshortingisproposed,
andanimprovedfabricationprocessissuggestedtopreventelectricalshortingbetweenthecarbon
clothelectrodes.Inthepresentstudy,aparallelplatetypecapacitorisusedtosimplifytheproblem
ofelectricalshortingbetweencarbonfiberfabricelectrodes.

2.ElectricalShortingbetweenCarbonFiberPlieswithaGlass
FiberSeparator

Figure 1 shows the fabrication process of the carbonfiber fabric structural capacitor used in the
present study. Carbonfiber prepreg sheets (W3101A/Q112J, Toho Tenux Co., Tokyo, Japan,
thickness=0.198mm)wereusedaselectrodes.Aglassfiberclothsheet(E01ZSK#1017,Unitika
Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, thickness = 0.013 mm) was attached with epoxy adhesive (NB102, Newport,
thickness = 0.052 mm) to the electrodes as a separator to produce a sample with a length of 40
mmandwidthof20mm,whichwasthencuredat135Cfor1.5hunderatmosphericpressureina
vacuum bag. Silicone rubber blocks with a thickness of 0.5 mm were used to prevent excessive
epoxyresinflow.SixsampleswerefabricatedaphotographofatypicalsampleisshowninFigure
2.TheelectricalimpedanceofeachsamplewasmeasuredusinganLCRmeter(353250,HiokiCo.
Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). To measure electric impedance with small contact resistance, copper foil was
attachedtothesurfaceof

Figure1. Schematic representation of fabrication process of a structural

capacitorspecimen.

Figure2.Typicalexampleofstructuralcapacitorspecimen.

thepolishedsample.Analternatingvoltageof5Vat100kHzwasusedforthemeasurements.The
phase angle of the impedance was measured to determine electrical shorting. When the phase
angle was near 90, the sample was judged to have capacitance. When the phase angle was
almost0,thesampleexhibitedelectricalshortingbecauseofalackofelectricalcapacitance.

Theimpedanceofthesixsampleswasmeasuredonlythreesamplesshowedcapacitance,withan

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 2/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator
averagemagnitudeof200pF.Theothersamplesexhibitedelectricalshortingbetweenthecarbon
fiber cloth electrodes. This implies that glassfiber cloth separators are not reliable for use in
structural capacitors, so their reliability needs to be improved to fabricate largescale structural
capacitors.

3.MechanismofElectricalShortingbetweenCarbonFiberPlies

3.1.VisualizationofElectricalShortingArea

We examined the mechanism of electrical shorting between the carbonfiber cloth electrodes to
improvethereliabilityoffabricatingstructuralcapacitors.Inthissection,wefirstvisualizethearea
of electrical shorting using a deply technique and crosssectional observation. Samples used for
Top visualizationpossessedthesameconfigurationasthatshowninFigure1.Copperfoilwasattached

ABSTRACT totheedgeofthesampleasillustratedinFigure3.Thesampleswereobservedfromthetopusing
infraredthermography(WuhanGuideInfraredTechnologyCo.,Ltd.,China,2C).
Introduction
Whenalargeelectriccurrentisappliedtoasamplewithanelectricalshort,resistiveheatingcauses
ElectricalShorting
the temperature of the sample to increase. A stable direct current generator (PW181.3 AT,
betweenCarbonFiber
Kenwood,Japan)wasusedtoapplyanelectricalcurrentof0.05A.Whenelectricalshortingoccurs
PlieswithaGlassFiber
in small areas, these locations can be identified from the high temperature spots observed by
Separator
infraredthermography.Thespotsweremarkedusingcorrectionfluid.
MechanismofElectrical
Afteridentificationoftheareaswhereelectricalshortingoccurred,oneofthesampleswasdivided
ShortingbetweenCarbon
intopliesusingadeplytechnique:epoxyresinwasburnedoffusingahandygasburnerandeach
FiberPlies
plywasseparatedfromthelaminate.Eachplywascarefullyobservedtoinvestigatefiberbreakage
PreCuringtoPrevent
orfractionationofcarbonfibersusingavideomicroscopeandscanningelectronmicroscope(SEM).
ElectricalShorting
A crosssectional view of the hightemperature area of the other sample was obtained by SEM to
investigatetheappearanceofglassfiberseparator.
Conclusion

References
3.2.ResultsandDiscussion
NOTES
Figure4showsatypicalimageofasampletakenusinginfraredthermography.Thetemperatureof
the sample surface is not uniform there are hightemperature areas. The existence of such areas
indicates that the electrical shorting between the carbonfiber electrode plies is not uniform. If
electricalshortingoccursbecauseofelectricallyconductiveparticlessuchasfragmentsoffibersor
graphitecrystals,theelectricalshortshouldbealmostuniformbecausethesefragmentsmayexist
almost everywhere if the fragments are the source of shorting. Moreover, the electrical contact
formedbythesefragmentshashighelectricalresistance[8].Thisindicatesthatelectricalshorting
inthesesamplesisnotcausedbyelectricallyconductiveparticles.

Aftermarkingtheelectricalshortareas,thesamplewasheatedtoremovetheresinandthethree
plieswereseparated,asshowninFigure5observedusingavideomicroscope.Figure6 shows the
surface of the each ply around the electrical short area. No fiber breakage was observed. Figure 7
showsthesurfaceofaplywhere

Figure 3. Experimental procedure to identify the electrical short spots

between electrodes of a structural capacitor using an infrared
thermography.

Figure 4. Typical example of specimen surface image using an infrared

thermography.

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 3/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator

Figure 5. Separated plies using a deply technique. White dots indicate

theelectricalshortspotsidentifiedusinganinfraredthermography.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure6.CarbonfibersatthepointswheretheelectricalshortwereidentifiedinFigure 5.
(a)CarbonfibersatpointA(b)CarbonfibersatpointB(c)CarbonfibersatpointC(d)
CarbonfibersatpointD.

Figure7.Typicalcarbonfiberatthepointwhereelectricalshortwasnot
observed.

electrical shorting was not observed. Comparison of these images reveals that the surface fibers
appearidentical.Figure8presentedthemagnifiedsurfaceofaplyinanelectricalshortarea.There
is no fragmentation of carbon fibers or graphite particles on the surface of the ply. These results
indicatethattheelectricalshortingisnotcausedbycarbonfiberbreakageofgraphiteparticles.

Figure 9 depicts the temperature distribution of a different sample surface measured by infrared
thermography. Because the hightemperature area on the left appears at the edge where the
copperfoilelectrodeisattached,crosssectionalviewsofonlythethreemiddlespotswereobtained.
Thesamplewascutalongthedashedlineindicatedinthisfigure.Figure10showsatypicalcross
sectionalviewinaregionwithouthightemperatureareas.Here,theglassfiberclothactsperfectly
asaseparatorbetweentheupperandlowercarbonfiberclothelectrodes.Acrosssectionalviewof
ahightemperatureareaispresentedinFigure11.Asindicatedbyacircle,thecarbonfiberclothis
partially disordered and the upper layer is in physical contact with the lower. This contact point
allowselectricalcontactbetweentheupperandlowercarbonfiberclothlayers,creatinganelectrical
short.

Figure8.Magnifiedcarbonfibersusingascanningelectronmicroscopeat
thepointAwhereelectricalshortwasobserved.

Figure9.Resultofaninfraredthermography.Asacopperfoilelectrodeis
attached at the left side, the broken line is used to observe the cross
sectionalview.

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 4/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator

Figure10. Cross sectional view at the point where the electrical short is
notobserved.

4.PreCuringtoPreventElectricalShorting

Intheprevioussection,electricalshortingbetweenthecarbonfiberelectrodeclothplieswasshown
tobecausedbymovementoftheglassfiberclothseparatorduringcuring.Inthepresentsection,a
method to prevent this movement of the fibers in the separator is proposed and experimentally
investigated. To prevent fiber movement during the curing process, we precured the glassfiber
clothprepregtopreventepoxyresinflowinit.Thispreventsthemovementofglassfiberssothat
electrical shorting can be avoided. However, perfectly cured prepreg induces limited bonding
between the carbonfiber cloths. Therefore, a suitable precuring level is investigated
experimentally.

Separatorsmadefromglassfiberclothandepoxyadhesivewerepartiallycured.First,thedegreeof
curing was measured by differential scanning calorimetry. The curing temperature and time were
varied as shown in Table 1 to give three degrees of curing: 0.15, 0.68 and 0.76. The degree of
curing is defined as the fraction of heat generation divided by the total heat generation of the
perfectcureforeachsetofcuringconditionsshowninTable1

After precuring of each separator, it was sandwiched between carbonfiber cloth prepreg layers,
and then cocured under the curing conditions described in Section 2. After cocuring of the
samples,analternatingelectriccurrentwasappliedandtheimpedancephaseanglewasmeasured
as described in Section 2 to investigate sample capacitance. For curing degrees of 0.15 and 0.76,
three samples of each type were made. For a curing degree of 0.68, six samples were fabricated.
Figure12showsthenumberofsamplesexhibitingcapacitance.Forthelowestdegreeofcuring,all
ofthecarbonfiberelectrodesexhibitedelectricalshorting.Forthesampleswithacuringdegreeof
0.68,foursamplesoutofsixexhibitedcapacitance.Allofthesampleswithacuringdegreeof0.76
hadcapacitance.Theseresultssuggestthataprecuringdegreeof0.76allowsreliablefabricationof
structuralcapacitors.

Figure13(a)andFigure13(b)showsamplesthatexhibitedanelectricalshortbetweencarbonfiber
electrodes and electrical capacitance, respectively. Comparison of these images reveals that the
samplewithanelectricalshorthasawarpedsurface,soepoxyresinflowoccurredinit.Thisresin
flowcausesthefiberstomove,allowinganelectricalcontacttoformbetweenthecarbonfibercloth
electrodes. To prevent electrical shorting between the electrodes of a structural capacitor, pre
curingoftheglassfiberclothseparatorisrequired.

Figure11. Cross sectional view at the point where the electrical short is
observed. The point where the circle is placed has fiber contact between
thecarbonfiberplies.

Figure12.Effectofprecureofseparatorfabricglassclothply.

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 5/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator

(a) (b)

Figure 13. Typical specimen configuration after curing (degree of cure of 0.68). (a)
Specimenwithelectricalshort(b)Specimenwithcapacitance.

Table1.Threetypesofcureconditions.

5.Conclusion

Electrical shorting between the carbonfiber electrodes of a structural capacitor containing glass
clothasaseparatorwasinvestigated.Electricalshortingbetweenelectrodesoftenhappensinsuch
systems because the glass fiber of the separator move through epoxy resin flow during curing.
Movementofglassfiberscanformaholetoallowcontactbetweenthecarbonfiberclothelectrodes,
resulting in electrical shorting. Precuring of the glassfiber cloth separator to a suitable degree
ensuresperfectelectricalinsulationbetweenelectrodes,preventingelectricalshortformation.

References

1. Gibson,R.F.(2010)AReviewofRecentResearchonMechanicsofMultifunctional
CompositeMaterialsandStructures.CompositeStructures,92,27932810.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2010.05.003[CitationTime(s):1]
2. Luo,X.andChung,D.D.L.(2001)CarbonFiber/PolymerMatrixCompositesasCapacitors.
CompositesScienceandTechnology,61,885888.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0266
3538(00)001664[CitationTime(s):2]
3. Carlson,T.,Ordeus,D.,Wysocki,M.andAsp,L.E.(2010)StructuralCapacitorMaterials
MadefromCarbonFibreEpoxyComposites.CompositesScienceandTechnology,70,
11351140.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2010.02.028
4. Carlson,T.,Ordeus,D.,Wysocki,M.andAsp,L.E.(2011)CFRPStructuralCapacitor
MaterialsforAutomotiveApplications.Plastics,RubberandComposites,40,311316.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/174328911X12948334590286
5. Carlson,T.andAsp,L.E.(2013)StructuralCarbonFibreComposite/PETCapacitors
EffectofDielectricSeparatorThickness.Composites:PartB,49,1621.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.01.009
6. Shirshova,N.,Qian,H.,Shaffer,M.S.P.,Steinke,J.H.G.,Greenhalgh,E.S.,Curtis,P.T.,
Kucernak,A.andBismarck,A.(2013)StructuralCompositeSupercapacitors.Composites:
PartA,46,96107.[CitationTime(s):1]
7. Shirshova,N.,Bismarck,A.,Carreyette,S.,Fontana,Q.P.V.,Greenhalgh,E.S.,Jacobsson,
P.,Johansson,P.,Marczewski,M.J.,Kalinka,G.,Kucernak,A.R.J.,Scheers,J.,Shaffer,
M.S.P.,Steinke,J.H.G.andWienrich,M.(2013)StructuralSupercapacitorElectrolytes
BasedonBicontinuousIonicLiquidEpoxyResinSystems.JournalofMaterialsChemistry
A,48,1530015309.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c3ta13163g[CitationTime(s):3]
8. Sandler,J.,Shaffer,M.S.P.,Prasse,T.,Bauhofer,W.,Schulte,K.andWindle,A.H.(1999)
DevelopmentofaDispersionProcessforCarbonNanotubesinanEpoxyMatrixandthe
ResultingElectricalProperties.Polymer,40,59675971.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S00323861(99)001664[CitationTime(s):1]

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 6/7
5/8/2017 Electrical Shorting between the CarbonFiber Cloth Electrodes of Structural Capacitors with a GlassFiber Cloth Separator

NOTES

*Electricalshortingofstructuralcapacitor.

Home|AboutSCIRP|Sitemap|ContactUs

Copyright20062015ScientificResearchPublishingInc.Allrightsreserved.

http://file.scirp.org/Html/21810121_47610.htm 7/7