Improving Tensile, Flexural and Interlaminar Strength of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Laminates by Coating the Fibers with Cellulose Nanocrystals - Bonded Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The objective of this study is to make hybrid carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites with enhanced interlaminar strength using cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and carbon nanotubes (CNT). We integrated the nanoparticles into the fibers by coating the carbon fibers through immersion and/or sonication in CNC or/and CNT aqueous suspensions prior to resin infusion through vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process. Three types of hybrid CFRP samples were prepared in this work: CNC-coated, CNT-coated and CNC-CNT coated and their interlaminar strength are compared with that of composites with no nanoparticles. The incorporation of 0.2CNT-0.2CNC in the CF/epoxy composite increased the interlaminar shear strength by ~35% and flexural strength and flexural toughness by ~33% and ~46% respectively.