Phthalocyanine nanowires@GO/carbon fiber composites with enhanced interfacial properties and electromagnetic interference shielding performance

Abstract

In this study, we describe the preparation of a hierarchical nanostructure consisting of tetraamino-phthalocyanine nanowires (TAPc NWs) decorated on graphene oxide (GO) supported on carbon fibers (CF-TAPc NWs@GO) through one-pot method of solvent-evaporation and self-assemble. The morphology and chemical composition of various CFs are investigated. The X-ray diffraction and UV–vis spectroscopy demonstrate the formation of α-phase TAPc NWs is induced with J-aggregation, and the possible assembly mechanism is presented. The adhesive forces between the CFs and TAPc molecules are quantitatively characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with peak force quantitative nanomechanical mapping (PF-QNM) mode, explaining the reason of TAPc NWs preferentially grown on the GO sheets. Moreover, the decreased contact angle and increased surface energy promote the impregnating of the matrix onto the CFs surface to improve the wettability. The interfacial shear strength of CF-TAPc NWs@GO composite is remarkably enhanced by 66.9% at 30 °C and 206.6% at 180 °C compared with untreated CF, which could be ascribed to its hierarchical nanostructure and increased active groups. The interfacial failure mechanisms are discussed by PF-QNM of AFM, which demonstrate that the interfacial transition layer has been established by the hierarchical structure of TAPc NWs@GO and act as a buffer to transfer stress, resulting in the cohesive failure. Additionally, the multiple interfacial polarization and conductive loss from the hierarchically structure of TAPc NWs@GO are highly efficient in endowing CF composite with a satisfactory electromagnetic interference (EMI)-shielding effectiveness of 29 dB in the X-band at a low CF-TAPc NWs@GO content of 0.5 wt%, which is enhanced 108.3% compared with untreated CF. The prepared CF-TAPc NWs@GO/EP composite shows great potential in aerospace and EMI applications.