Abstract

Double walled nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes composites for radiation deflection in
spacecrafts. By: Gavin Vasandani

Background: ​As spacecrafts exist Earth’s magnetosphere, they are exposed to high amounts
of cosmic radiation and high-energy ions produced from coronal mass ejections. These
radiation forms are highly lethal to astronauts, hindering manned space exploration. Currently,
lead, an outdated method of deflecting radiation, is utilized and simply scaled up to account for
highly ionizing radiation. For instance, the thickness of lead is increased to slow down incoming
gamma rays. However, this is an inefficient solution because lead is a dense material and a
thickness of 17-18 feet is needed to shield cosmic rays. This increases the mass of spacecrafts,
consequently, increasing fuel consumption and costs of spaceflight. As a solution, I created a
‘double-walled nitrogen doped carbon nanotube composite’.

Aim: ​Develop a low weight, cost-effective and efficient radiation deflecting composite using
carbon nanotubes for manned spacecrafts and prove the success of this devised composite
against current methodologies, lead.

Methods:​ Double-walled carbon nanotubes granules were doped with nitrogen using chemical
vapor deposition, followed by synthesizing the granules with an epoxy to form a double walled
nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube composite. A fluorescence microscope was used to
investigate photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL to determine the effect of
charge-carrier interactions and lattice vibrations of the composite. Radiation deflecting capability
was measured by launching a ​1x1.5x1cm ​samples of the composite past Earth’s ionosphere on
NASA’s RB4 Satellite from NASA Columbia Facility and evaluating colour changes in
paper-radiation dosimeters.

Results: ​The double-walled nitrogen doped carbon nanotube composite had a weaker emission
of 445 ​nm​ (blue emission) and a shorter excited-state lifetime of 4.74 ​ns​ than literature values
for nitrogen-free carbon nanotubes. In the radiation deflecting experiment, the paper dosimeter
​ as absorbed, whereas the control (lead) absorbed 600
of the composite indicated that 70 ​msv w
msv​.

Conclusion:​ The weaker emission and shorter time-resolved PL of my composite was

attributed to high amounts of interactions between charge-carriers, caused by carbon nanotubes
being doped with nitrogen--an n-type dopant--as well as coupled lattice vibrations due to
interactions between multiple carbon nanotube layers as the material is double-walled. Implying
my composite has a low band gap difference and higher electron density, as a consequence of
Compton scattering, a high electron density scatters high-ionized particles causing radiation
deflection.