Investigation on the effect of functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes on the mechanical properties of epoxy glass composites: Experimental and molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

In recent decades, polymer composites are widely used in industry due to their good mechanical properties and their low specific weight. Also, the use of glass fibers and carbon nanotubes can strengthen and improve the mechanical performance of the polymer due to their good mechanical properties. In this study, incorporated glass/epoxy nanocomposite with carbon nanotubes (CNT) samples were fabricated using a hand lay-up process, and the effect of addition functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (F-SWCNT) with COOH and non-functionalized SWCNT was investigated. The tensile strength, elastic modulus, bending strength was obtained experimentally using SANTAM-STM50. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the phase and morphology of the fibers. The mechanical properties results showed that the highest elastic modulus and tensile strength are obtained for the sample reinforced with F-SWCNT which increased by 32% and 10%, respectively in comparison with pure epoxy. Also, the obtained results of the bending test indicate that the highest flexural modulus and the highest flexural strength are related to the sample reinforced with functionalized carbon nanotubes which are 16.9 GPa and 381.39 MPa, respectively. Then, the mechanical performance of the reinforcement in the epoxy matrix and the failure mechanism was monitored using SEM images. Finally, reinforced epoxy nanocomposites with functionalized and non-functionalized SWCNT were simulated using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation to examine the agreement with the trends of experimental results. The MD obtained results showed that the most appropriate mode of dispersion occurs when functionalized carbon nanotubes are used. Also, it was observed that the elastic modulus of incorporated nanocomposites with F-SWCNT increased by 17% compared to non-functionalized SWCNT which shows the agreement with the trends of experimental results.