Influence of graphene oxide coatings on carbon fiber by ultrasonically assisted electrophoretic deposition on its composite interfacial property

Abstract

Graphene oxide coatings were utilized to enhance the interfacial properties of carbon fibers. In this work, a facile route is proposed to prepare graphene oxide/carbon fiber hybrid fiber via ultrasonically assisted electrophoretic deposition (EPD) without complex chemical reactions and long processing time. Surface functional group, surface roughness and surface morphologies of carbon fibers were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Surface free energy of the fiber was characterized by dynamic contact angle analysis (DCAA). The results indicated that the deposition of graphene oxide introduced some polar groups to carbon fiber surfaces and changed the surface morphologies of carbon fibers. Surface wettability of carbon fibers may be significantly improved by increasing surface free energy of the fibers due to the deposition of graphene oxide. Comparing the results with EPD-only, ultrasonically assisted EPD increased the thickness and uniformity of graphene oxide coatings whereas only sparse deposition formed without ultrasonic. Short beam shear test was performed to examine the impact of carbon fiber functionalization on the mechanical properties of the carbon fiber/epoxy resin composites. An improvement of 55% from 36.7 to 56.9MPa in interlaminar shear strength confirms the remarkable improvement in the interfacial adhesion strength of the composites.