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research article

Porous Lightweight Polyimide Films with Ultra-High Surface Insulation Strength and Thermal Insulation for Space Solar Arrays

Li, Wen-Rui
•
Yang, Xiong
•
Sun, Guang-Yu  
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September 26, 2025
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Improving the surface insulation strength of substrate material polyimide (PI) is an effective strategy to suppress charging and discharging effects of spacecraft solar arrays. To meet the insulation requirements of next-generation spacecraft with higher voltage levels, the surface insulation of PI must be further improved. Herein, we propose an approach to control the surface roughness and pore distribution of PI using a pore-forming agent. Modulating surface roughness and pore distribution effectively suppresses secondary electron emission avalanches, greatly enhancing surface insulation strength. When the pore-forming agent addition ratio is 50%, the film features the highest flashover threshold of 55.93 kV, a 201.7% improvement over the PI films currently used in spacecraft. The maximum secondary electron yield decreased from 2.01 to 1.32. Additionally, this novel porous PI film is exceptionally lightweight and possesses excellent electrical and thermal properties. The thermal equilibrium temperature is up to 13.44% lower than that of PI films currently used in spacecraft. Even after high- and low-temperature thermal shock, its mechanical properties and flashover performance remain highly stable. The novel polyimide films hold great potential for future applications in insulation of space solar arrays.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acsami.5c16114
Author(s)
Li, Wen-Rui
Yang, Xiong
Sun, Guang-Yu  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Zhang, Yu-Cheng
Liu, Hao-Yan
Qin, Xiao-Gang
Song, Bai-Peng
Zhang, Guan-Jun
Date Issued

2025-09-26

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Published in
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Article Number

acsami.5c16114

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
POWERLAB  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Grant No. 51827809

the independent research project of the State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Grant No. 52537007

Available on Infoscience
October 3, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/254641
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