A research group led by Prof. MA Pengcheng at CAS Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry and Prof. Edith Mäder in the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden in Germany utilized BF as a substrate to deposit/grow various carbon-based nanoparticles on fibre surface. The introduction of pyrolytic carbon (PyC) or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the surface of basalt fibers (BF) resulted in conducting BF. When a tow of this BF was embedded into a polymer matrix, the corresponding fibre-reinforced polymer showed a positive piezoresistance under mechanical deformation. The study was co-financed by the China-Germany Scientific Cooperation Program
CAS news release, September 13, 2017