Ni–Ag Metal Green Modification of Carbon Fiber and the Thermal Management Performance of Their Composites

ABSTRACT The contamination of noble metals used as activators, the uncontrollable fiber damage induced by chemical treatments, and the immature technology for high‐quality Ag coatings have long been the primary obstacles restricting the research and application of metallized carbon fiber (metal@CF). This study mainly investigated the electrical conduction and thermal shock durability of Ni–Ag metal@CF, as well as the thermal management performance of metal@CF epoxy composites (metal@CF/EP). An electric field‐induced autocatalytic deposition method (differing from the continuous current in electrodeposition) was used for Ni@CF: CF was subjected to an instantaneous current in the electroless deposition solution and then disconnected from the power, which rapidly generated catalytic active sites on the fiber surface for metal ion reduction and thereby promoted the spontaneous completion of Ni electroless deposition. Subsequently, an Ag layer was deposited via electrodeposition, and Ni–Ag metal@CF/EP composites were fabricated. Quantitative analysis demonstrated that the composite coating structure and the novel method constitutes the key to achieving excellent interfacial performance and quality, which outperforms the results reported in previous literatures. Specifically, the mass loss rate of Ni–Ag–Ni@CF was maintained at 5.7%, the volume resistance was reduced to 1.1 × 10 ⁻¹ Ω cm ⁻¹ , representing a reduction of up to 77.6% compared to CF and 64.5% compared to Ni@CF. The Ni–Ag composite coating enhanced the thermal management performance of CFRP by up to 90.0%, corresponding to an approximate increase of 6.0%. This study provides a novel design paradigm for the structural and functional integration of CF.