Abstract
The effect of plant-fiber paper or silver nanowires-loaded paper interleaves on the electrical conductivity and interlaminar fracture toughness of composites was studied. Highly conductive paper was prepared by surface-loaded silver nanowires. The percolation threshold appeared at about 0.4 g/m2. The surface resistivity reached 2.3 Ω/sq when the areal density of silver nanowires was 0.95 g/m2. After interleaving the conductive papers in the composite interlayers, in-plane electrical conductivity perpendicular to the fiber direction was increased by 171 times and conductivity through thickness direction was increased by 2.81 times. However, Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness decreased by 67.3% and 66.9%, respectively. Microscopic analysis showed that the improvement of conductivity was attributable to the formation of an electrical conducting network of silver nanowires which played a role in electrical connection of carbon fiber plies and the interleaving layers. However, the density of the highly packed flat plant fibers impeded the infiltration of resin. The parallel distribution of flat fibers to the carbon plies, and poor resin-fiber interface made the interlaminar fracture occur mainly at the interface of plant fibers and resin inside the interleaves, resulting in a decline of the interlaminar fracture toughness. The surface-loading of silver nanowires further impeded the infiltration of resin in the densely packed plant fibers, resulting in further decline of the fracture toughness.
Highlights
Continuous carbon fiber-reinforced resin matrix composites are usually made of continuous carbon fibers as the reinforcement and thermosetting resin as the matrix
The paper was formed from a large number of plant fibers overlapping each other
The decrease of the interlaminar fracture toughness can be attributed to highly parallel, densely packed interleaf structure formed by the flattened plant fibers and the poor interface between plant fibers and epoxy resin
Summary
Continuous carbon fiber-reinforced resin matrix composites are usually made of continuous carbon fibers as the reinforcement and thermosetting resin as the matrix. Because of their high strength and modulus, these materials are widely used in aerospace and attract an increasing amount of attention in many fields [1]. On the other hand, going green and going functional are the two major themes in material development in the world. An increasing number of researchers are focused on the 'greening' of raw materials such as developing bio-based epoxy resin matrix and applying natural fibers as the reinforcement [2,3,4]. Interleaving materials generally use thermoplastic resin particles, Aerospace 2018, 5, 77; doi:10.3390/aerospace5030077 www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace
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