Mechanical Properties of Silk Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites with Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Biodegradable composites consisting of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and carbon nanotube (CNT)-coated silk (Bombxy mori) fibers were prepared by melt compression molding. The results show that even with addition of a small amount of reinforcements (about 3 wt%), the tensile strength and modulus of the composites improved dramatically by about 195% and 121%, respectively, compared with PBS. The improvement is attributed to stronger interfacial shear strength between the PBS matrix and the CNT-coated surface of silk fiber, which was obtained by the microbond droplet test between PBS matrix and fibers. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy images indicated that the interfacial adhesion between PBS matrix and CNT-coated fiber improved in the composites.