Abstract
Basalt fibre (BF) is one of the most promising reinforcing natural materials for polymer composites that could replace the usage of glass fibre due to its comparable properties. The aim of adding nanofiller in polymer composites is to enhance the mechanical properties of the composites. In theory, the incorporation of high strength and stiffness nanofiller, namely graphene nanoplatelet (GNP), could create superior composite properties. However, the main challenges of incorporating this nanofiller are its poor dispersion state and aggregation in epoxy due to its high surface area and strong Van der Waals forces in between graphene sheets. In this study, we used one of the effective methods of functionalization to improve graphene’s dispersion and also introducing nanosilica filler to enhance platelets shear mechanism. The high dispersive silica nanospheres were introduced in the tactoids morphology of stacked graphene nanosheets in order to produce high shear forces during milling and exfoliate the GNP. The hybrid nanofiller modified epoxy polymers were impregnated into BF to evaluate the mechanical properties of the basalt fibre reinforced polymeric (BFRP) system under tensile, compression, flexural, and drop-weight impact tests. In response to the synergistic effect of zero-dimensional nanosilica and two-dimensional graphene nanoplatelets enhanced the mechanical properties of BFRP, especially in Basalt fibre + 0.2 wt% GNP/15 wt% NS (BF-H0.2) with the highest increment in modulus and strength to compare with unmodified BF. These findings also revealed that the incorporation of hybrid nanofiller contributed to the improvement in the mechanical properties of the composite. BF has huge potential as an alternative to the synthetic glass fibre for the fabrication of mechanical components and structures.
Highlights
The use of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites has been expanded from time to time for numerous strengthening applications in various industries
The findings showed that the addition of the fillers (polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyoxymethylene (POM) or molybdenum disulphide (MoS2)) contribute to the improvement in hardness, strength and coefficient of friction of the basalt fibre reinforced polymeric (BFRP) composite
The result shows that BFRP composites have a lower density than GFRP with the average density of neat BFRP and GFRP composites being 1.552 g/cm3 and 1.613 g/cm3, respectively
Summary
The use of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites has been expanded from time to time for numerous strengthening applications in various industries. Fibres, which are the load-bearing constituent, provide high stiffness and strength in the polymer composite It is a natural or synthetic substance that acts as a reinforcement to enhance the strength and elasticity of plastics in the form of continuous filaments or discrete elongated pieces as similar to pieces of thread. Many studies have been conducted to develop an alternative method to improve the dispersion and mechanical properties of graphene in the polymer [28,29,30,31,32]. The motivation behind the development of hybrid nanofiller materials is to achieve an improvement of the nanocomposites through the combination and synergistic effect of both materials and employed in the natural basalt fibre reinforced polymer composites. The improvement mechanism of hybrid filler in terms of mechanical properties may be due to shape formation and dimensional structure, the interaction between nanofillers, optimum weight ratio, proper processing technique and good filler dispersion
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