As the use of carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) is continuing to increase in engineering applications, more functionalities will be required. Having an enhanced through-thickness electrical conductivity can be a useful functionality for CFRPs which will minimise their damage from lightning strikes, and will help in their real-time monitoring. For most modification methods there is an adverse effect on the manufacturing and the fibre volume fraction, which influence the mechanical properties of the resulting composites. Simultaneous improvement of multiple properties of CFRPs is difficult, and as such the ways in which different materials and processes improve properties of CFRPs need to be understood in depth. This review discusses research that attempts to improve the through-thickness electrical conductivity of CFRPs with interest in the effects on mechanical properties, specifically interlaminar fracture toughness. The last section discusses the effect and use of these methods to improve structural health monitoring (SHM) of CFRP.

随着碳纤维增强聚合物（CFRP）在工程应用中的使用不断增加，将需要更多的功能。对于CFRP而言，具有提高的贯穿厚度的电导率可能是有用的功能，它将最大程度地减少雷击对CFRP的损害，并有助于实时监控。对于大多数改性方法，对制造和纤维体积分数有不利影响，这会影响所得复合材料的机械性能。很难同时改善CFRP的多种性能，因此，需要深入了解不同材料和工艺改善CFRP的性能的方式。这篇综述讨论了一些研究，这些研究试图提高CFRP的全厚度电导率，而对机械性能（特别是层间断裂韧性）产生了影响。最后一部分讨论了这些方法对改善CFRP的结构健康监测（SHM）的效果和用途。