Abstract
A major problem with carbon fiber/epoxy (CF/EP) composites is their weakness to resist interlaminar delamination originating from the brittle epoxy matrix. Interleaving has been long studied as a solution. In this work, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were uniformly decorated on electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers by ultra-sonication to form flexible interleaves for CF/EP laminates. Upon epoxy curing, PCL nanofibers were phase separated from epoxy, and CNTs could be uniformly distributed within the matrix. Results obtained showed that modes I and II interlaminar fracture energies of CF/EP laminates interleaved with CNT-decorated PCL nanofibers were enhanced by 68% and 44%, respectively. Synchronous improvement of 7.5% on the interlaminar shear strength of CF/EP laminates were also achieved. Moreover, the glass transition temperature of the interleaved laminates was maintained as that of epoxy because of the introduction of the CNTs.
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