Inrecent years, the interest in composite materials has increased as a newengineering material due to its unique properties. Where it was usedprominently in structural applications that requires lightweight and highresistance to corrosion.
These materials have proved success in many applications(space, transportation, civil and military industry, agricultural industries,medical industries, etc.)1,2. Composite materials can be defined as amaterial composed of two or more different substances that share theirproperties, to form new material with new properties, where there is nochemical reaction between these substances and each substance retains its basicproperties. Composite materials consist of reinforcing material that have high strength and stiffness, such as glass fibers and carbon fiber, immersed in a matrix material such as polymer or resin. The matrix material bonds the fiberstogether, and also transfers the shear stresses to the reinforcing material.
Composite materials have outperformed traditional structural materials (whichmade from metals) in many ways. For example: have more durability thantraditional structural materials, easy to form complex shapes with differentsizes, light weight without affecting the strength, exposed to low fatiguerates, high thermal resistance (for ceramic mixtures), larger resistance tocorrosion and weather conditions, a huge resistance to the spread of cracksthat may occur as a result of vibration, and therefore, they are excellent tobe used in the rotational axes. All these reasons have pushed compositematerials to the top of the list and made them the preferred materials inaircraft construction 3-5.
In theaviation, the metals were used to shield the electronic systems in theaircraft, to protect them from the electromagnetic interference (EMI). Inaddition to that, metal coils are currently used in the installation ofaircraft structures to protect the aircraft from lightning strikes. However,these metals are heavy which increase the weight of the aircraft and are alsocostly. Therefore, aerospace companies tried to find conductive compositematerials instead of metals. The advantages of conductive composites are:lightweight, high strength and stiffness, and high electrical conductivitycapable of protecting the aircraft and its systems (sensors, integratedcircuits, etc.
..) from lightning strikesand electromagnetic interference (EMI). In addition to that, they can also beused as a heating element capable of melting the ice that forms on the surfaceof the aircrafts 6-8.
The major focus of this paper is toprovide a comprehensive review of conductive composites. A brief introductionto the chemistry and properties of the well-known graphene material, followedby review of the recent literature on graphene conductive composites isprovided.
