Mechanical performance of woven carbon fabric reinforced pCBT composites with nanosilica particles

Abstract

The effect of nanosilica content (0, 0.5, and 2 wt%) on mechanical performance of carbon fabric woven cloth reinforced polymerized poly(butylene terephthalate) resin composites (CF/pCBT) is investigated. The catalyst and nanosilica particles are added on the prepreg surface, and hot‐press processing is adopted in order to manufacture CF/pCBT composites. The experimental results reveal that nanosilica could enhance the mechanical performance of CF/pCBT composites. After adding nanosilica in the composites, elastic modulus enhances 23.96%, and Mode‐II fracture toughness increases 380.43%. Scanning electron microscope observation shows that dispersity of nanoparticles in composites plays an important role on the overall mechanical performance of the obtained composites. Furthermore, failure mechanism has been analyzed according to the damage morphology. POLYM. COMPOS., 38:2528–2535, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers