Increasing carbon fiber composite strength with a nanostructured “brick-and-mortar” interphase

Francois De Luca,Adam J Clancy,David B Anthony,Alexander Bismarck,Milo S P Shaffer,Noelia R Carrero,Hugo G De Luca

doi:10.1039/c7mh00917h

Francois De Luca, Adam J Clancy + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1039/c7mh00917h

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Abstract

Sudden composite failure under tension can be delayed by a highly ordered nanostructured multilayered nacre mimetic interface applied to carbon fibres by isolating fiber breaks within the composite.

Highlights

Structural fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, especially carbon fiber-reinforced composites, are widely used as a Polymer & Composite Engineering (PaCE) Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UKComposite structures manifest a wide range of toughening mechanisms including interfacial debonding,[5] post-debonding668 | Mater
The LbL process is based on electrostatic forces, and requires the substrate to have a high surface charge density to allow for successful deposition and adequate adhesion
Commercial industrially oxidized, unsized carbon fibers have only a limited charge density (Fig. 1A and Supporting information S3, Electronic supplementary information (ESI)†), which leads to weak interactions with the deposited coating (Supplementary information S2, ESI†)

Summary

Introduction

Composite structures manifest a wide range of toughening mechanisms including interfacial debonding,[5] post-debonding. It is important to retain the critical aspect ratio of the platelets in order to favor the required pull-out and sliding mechanisms.[33,34] The working assumption, based on existing models, is that nacre-like properties can be replicated independently of absolute scale, as long as the aspect ratio of the reinforcing platelets is maintained (at about 10) and the relative thickness of the soft organic layers remains about 5 to 10% of the platelet thickness.[35,36] The thickness of a typical polymer layer, defined by the dimensions of polymer molecules, is around 1–2 nm, and platelets should ideally be approximately 10 to 20 nm thick and about 100–200 nm wide At this scale, the curvature of the fiber is insignificant, and a conformal layered structure can, in principle, be accommodated. The effect of a nanostructured composite interphase was quantified on the single fiber level and in model impregnated tow composites

Results and discussion

Conclusions

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