Effects of electrostatic charging in The dispersion of carbon nanotubes on the mechanical and thermal Properties of carbon fibre epoxy Composites

Abstract

The essential criteria for strong composites composed from matrices and fillers are: high aspect ratio fillers, alignment, high loading, large interfacial area, and effective stress transfer between the filler and the matrix. Nanotube-reinforced epoxy systems grasp the potential of delivering superior composite materials with high strength, light weight and multi-functional structures and have attracted great attention. The principal aim of this work is to reduce the problem of agglomeration of carbon nanotubes and thereby acheiving uniform dispersion. Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) is chosen as a reinforcement in the fabrication of carbon fibre/epoxy composite. Different weight percentages of surface modified and unmodified MWCNT are used to evaluate the significant need of filler addition on matrix. The mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, impact, hardness and inter laminar shear strength tests shows the surface modified MWCNT/Carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites gives better results than the unmodified MWCNT/carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin composites. TGA results shows that the surface modified MWCNT/Carbon fibre epoxy resin composite gives maximum delay in degradation. Scanning electron microscope images also revealed that the dispersion of surface modified MWCNT on epoxy matrix was better at high frequecny sonication than unmodified MWCNT/epoxy system. Based on the results, the optimum weight percentage of MWCNT loading into the carbon fiber/epoxy matrix composite was determined. newline newline newline