Abstract
The mechanical and thermophysical properties of biobased epoxy nanocomposites reinforced with organo-montmorillonite clay and PAN-based carbon fibers are investigated. A sonication technique was utilized to process the organically modified clay into glassy biobased epoxy networks. This process resulted in clay nanoplatelets being homogeneously dispersed and completely exfoliated in the matrix. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was conducted and that yielded an increase of 0.9 GPa for the storage modulus of biobased epoxy at 30 °C with the addition of 5.0 wt% exfoliated clay nanoplatelets. The glass transition temperature, however, decreased with addition of the organo-clay nanoplatelets. To completely understand the role of clay nanoplatelets in biobased epoxy nanocomposites, the microstructure of clay nanoplatelets were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) were processed using the new biobased epoxy/clay nanocomposites as the matrices. Flexural modulus and strength values did not change regardless of the use of different epoxy matrices. This response is normal for a fiber dominated mechanical test. It was, however, observed that the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of CFRP improved by adding 5.0 wt% intercalated clay nanoplatelets.
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