Graphene-Skinned Glass Fiber Fabric for Seamless Structural-Functional Integration in Advanced Composites

Graphene-skinned glass fiber fabric (GGFF), featuring conformal and conductive graphene coatings on individual fibers in glass fiber fabric (GFF), imparts excellent electrical, electromagnetic, and multifunctional properties while preserving the intrinsic architecture, flexibility, and mechanical performance of GFF. This makes GGFF a functional reinforcement for fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), a widely used class of engineering structural materials. The excellent surface energy match between GGFF and epoxy resin ensures superior wettability and polymer impregnation, enabling GGFF's seamless incorporation into conventional FRP composites manufacturing processes (e.g., autoclave-based prepreg techniques). The resulting GGFF-functionalized glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GGFRP) exhibits microstructural quality and mechanical performance comparable to pristine GFRP, thereby achieving structural-functional integration. GGFF exhibits excellent electrothermal performance, characterized by an ultrafast thermal response (∼139.0 °C s-1) and high temperature uniformity over large areas. The fabrication of a GGFRP-based aircraft wing leading-edge structure further highlights its outstanding structural moldability, and a low-energy-consumption anti-/de-icing function was realized (∼0.1 W cm-2 for anti-icing and ∼0.3 W cm-2 for de-icing at -30 °C). Graphene-skinned fiber provides a material choice for the development of structurally and functionally integrated composites applicable to aerospace, renewable energy, and other high-performance engineering fields.