Abstract
This paper reports the effects of bucky paper interleaves made from carbon nanofiber (CNF) on mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites (CFRPs). The CNF bucky papers were fabricated by vacuum filtration of functionalized CNF-acetone dispersion. Three different techniques were used to impregnate the bucky papers with epoxy resin, including simple soaking, hot compression and vacuum infiltration. Partially cured bucky papers containing about 10wt% CNFs were then integrated into carbon fiber prepregs to produce CFRP hybrid composites with bucky paper interleaves. It is revealed that the vacuum infiltration technique resulted in the best quality of polymer intercalation among the three methods used to impregnate the bucky papers. The mode-II fracture toughness of the corresponding CNF bucky paper interleaved hybrid composites increased by about 104% whereas the corresponding interlaminar shear strength improved by about 31% compared to the composites without interleaves. Fracture surfaces were examined on a SEM and an optical microscope to identify the pertinent mechanisms involved in toughening and strengthening of CFRP composites. The significance of this paper is that the technique developed here can be used to incorporate CNFs of high contents to strengthen/toughen at failure prone locations in CFRP composites, which has not been possible previously because of the high viscosity caused by simple dispersion of randomly-oriented CNFs in a polymer resin.
Original language | British English |
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State | Published - 2011 |
Event | 18th International Conference on Composites Materials, ICCM 2011 - Jeju, Korea, Republic of Duration: 21 Aug 2011 → 26 Aug 2011 |
Conference
Conference | 18th International Conference on Composites Materials, ICCM 2011 |
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Country/Territory | Korea, Republic of |
City | Jeju |
Period | 21/08/11 → 26/08/11 |
Keywords
- Bucky paper
- Carbon fiber
- Carbon nanofiber
- Interlaminar properties