Experimental investigation on graphene oxides coated carbon fibre/epoxy hybrid composites: Mechanical and electrical properties

Abstract

In this article, Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness, flexural and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) properties of graphene oxides (GOs) coated carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites have been studied. Here, a simple electrophoretic deposition technique was employed to coat the GO and reduced graphene oxide (rEGO) fillers onto the carbon fibre (CF) surfaces. To partially reduce the coated GOs, the GOs coated CFs were thermally annealed at 200 °C for 2 h. Vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM) technique was employed to fabricate hybrid epoxy composites with three variants of GOs (namely, GO, rEGO, TrGO) coated CFs. The modified composite laminates have demonstrated substantial improvement in ILSS properties, where composites based on GOs coated CFs exhibited the highest enhancement of 47%. Similarly, flexural and Mode I fracture properties of composites also delivered significant improvements in their values, gaining at 25% and 14% respectively. Interesting observations were made from the fracture surface images of double cantilever beam (DCB) test specimens of composites. Through-thickness electrical conductivity of thermally reduced GOs coated and rEGOs coated CF composites have shown a substantial increment of 127% and 90% compared to uncoated composites.