Investigation on interlaminar behavior of different morphology GO structured carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

In this study, the deoxygenation of exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) was employed to fabricate different morphology GO structured carbon fiber (CF) via electrophoretic deposition. It was found that the deposition morphology of GO on CF was closely related to its oxygen content. Meanwhile, the interfacial behavior of the final composites greatly depended on the adhesion morphology of GO. The transverse bundles fiber test (TFBT) and interlaminar shearing strength (ILSS) revealed that the pitaya-like GO structured CF (CF/GO13) composites displayed a superior interlaminar performance. The TFBT and ILSS of CF/GO13 composites reached as high as 31.9 MPa and 77.3 MPa, which was 42.56% and 50.5% higher than that of virgin CF composites, respectively. Besides, the CF/GO13 composites displayed an excellent resistance to high-low temperature cycling, only showing 7.09% reduction in ILSS after cycling for 10 times. The present study provided a reliable guidance for optimizing interfacial properties of the composites via regulating the morphology of two-dimensional nanomaterials on CF.