Enhanced mechanical properties of multi-scaled carbon reinforcements in ternary epoxy composites materials

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene have widely used as reinforcements in epoxy for various aims and applications since their ‘discovery’. For example, in the area of aviation and aerospace materials, carbon reinforcements are desirable as they offer solutions for light weight yet mechanically enhanced materials. The objective of this work is to investigate the effects of adding combination of carbon fillers of different aspect ratios on the thermal mechanical, Young’s Modulus and Fracture Toughness properties of the resultant epoxy composites. The carbon fillers include carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene, and carbon black (CB) and their combined loading will be varied from 0.5 wt. % until 7 wt. % to form sets of binary epoxy composites and a ternary epoxy composites. All of the fillers are kept at the 1:1 weight ratio for CB + CNT, CB + Graphene, CNT + Graphene, and CB + CNT + Graphene. Among these combinations, the system with ternary fillers at 7 wt.% demonstrated the highest value of glass transition temperature (Tg) and KIC, and Young’s Modulus. The percent improvement for glass transition temperature (Tg) and KIC, and Young’s Modulus compared to neat epoxy are 9.5 %, 571%, and 58.3%, respectively. This work clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of employing various carbon fillers with different aspect ratio and morphology in enhancing the values of mechanical properties of epoxy system.