Nanowire Reinforcements for Improving the Interlaminar Properties of Textile Composites

Abstract

A novel technique to improve the Mode-I and Mode-II interlaminar fracture toughness and low-velocity impact response of woven carbon fiber reinforced polymeric matrix composite face sheets using zinc oxide nanowires is proposed. Zinc oxide nanowires are directionally synthesized on dry carbon fabrics, which are then used to manufacture laminates. The influence of zinc oxide nanowires on the interlaminar fracture toughness is evaluated using double cantilever beam and end-notched flexure tests. The fracture toughness values determined are compared against regular interfaces. Significant improvement in the Mode-I (up to 85%) and Mode-II (about 28%) interlaminar fracture toughness values is observed with zinc oxide nanowires. Therefore, nanowire interlaminar reinforcements appear to enhance the interlaminar fracture toughness of textile composites. Next, low-velocity impact responses are investigated and the degree of damage is experimentally determined. The experiments reveal that the samples with ZnO nanowires experience a lower degree of damage, up to a maximum of 25% for different impact energies, in comparison to the samples without. Therefore, the study presented in this chapter shows the potential of using ZnO nanowires as interlaminar reinforcements for woven composites to improve their impact damage resistance.