Effects of carbon nanotube and/or graphene reinforcement on the mechanical performance of glass fiber/epoxy composite

Abstract

In current times, neat fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are not able to satisfy the requirements of various critical applications where high performance is required, hence material modification is needed. The allotropes of carbonaceous nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes and graphene have attracted many researchers and engineers for improving the performance of FRP composites. In present research, addition of 0.1 wt. % of carbon nanotubes to glass fiber/epoxy (GE) composites exhibits ~13% and ~9% increase in the flexural strength and modulus, respectively when compared to control GE composite due to its higher aspect ratio, when tested at room temperature. Same amount of graphene addition showed ~12% and ~11% increment in the aforesaid properties because of its higher specific surface area. Further improvement in flexural strength and modulus was observed in hybrid GE composite reinforced with both CNT and graphene, due to the 3D combined action of these nano fillers. To study the effect of CNT and/or graphene presence on the thermal properties of the GE composite, differential scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was carried out. To study the mode of failure, fractography has been done with scanning electron microscope