Enhancement of Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber Composite by Electrophoretic deposition of Graphene based functional groups

Abstract

This work primarily aims to fabricate a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composite using hand layup technique with epoxy as the matrix material and carbon fibers modified with graphene based nanofillers (GBN) deposited by the Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique as the reinforcement material. Carbon Fiber (CF) was developed into one of the most important reinforcement material used in the fabrication of high performance composites for critical applications. Graphene, a monolayer of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms arranged in a twodimensional lattice, has attracted tremendous attention in recent years owing to its exceptional thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is an attractive technique for manipulation and deposition of nanomaterials, in general, and also for GBN specifically. The feasibility of the EPD process for improving the mechanical properties of the composite has been evaluated. The laminates thus obtained using these fibers were tested using UTM Instron 5967. Composites that were fabricated using graphene oxide modified carbon fibers have shown an improvement of 12% in the flexural strength when compared to that of neat Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites. Fractographic study using scanning electron microscope further revealed various failure modes of the composites.