Abstract: A dense and uniform Ni-P coating was prepared on the treated glass fiber surface by electroless plating. The electrothermal properties of nickel-coated glass fiber and the melting properties of the composites were studied. SEM showed that the surface of the glass fiber was smooth before nickel plating, and the nickel particle distribution was uniform and its diameter was between 150 nm and 300 nm. The resistance test shows that the resistance of the sample decreases with the increase of nickel plating time, and the surface resistance of the sample is 1.4 Ω/□ when the nickel plating time is 25 min. The cyclic electrothermal experiment shows that the nickel-coated glass fiber has good electrothermal properties, and the heating capacity increases rapidly with the increase of input power. The maximum equilibrium temperature is reached within 40 s. The conductivity of the sample was improved after several electrothermal cycles, which may be related to the crystallization transition caused by high temperature. The deicing experiment showed that the best deicing effect was obtained by using Ni-coated glass fiber/epoxy resin conductive FRP material, and the shortest time of ice falling off on the surface of Ni-coated glass fiber/epoxy composite was 112 s under the input voltage of 5 V.

Key words: electroless nickel plating, conductive FRP, electrothermal properties, crystal transition, deicing