Strategy of the manufacture of veils by electrospinning for the improvement of fiber reinforced polymeric composites properties

Abstract

In the last decades the fiber-reinforced polymer composites, FRPC, have undergone a spectacular development in applications where high performance of resistance and tenacity with a minimum weight are required. However, due to their laminar structure and the brittleness of their resin matrix, they show a great tendency to fracture as a failure mode. At the moment, technologies are being studied to improve their behavior to the fracture, doping or modification of resins and treatments of the reinforcing materials. However, the trend with the greatest potential is the use of interleave veils arranged as an interface between the matrix and the fiber, which have shown important improvements in the final mechanical properties of the composite material. This is due to adhesion phenomena between the polymer matrix and the reinforcing fiber. Initial studies were performed with interleave veils not specifically developed for this use; custom-made veils are currently being developed for use in laminated composites. The electrospinning technology is taking a positioning of relevance in this field, due to its great capacity of production and its low cost. High specific surface of electrospun veils , make electrospinning a good candidate to manufacture interleave veils to improve the mechanical properties of laminated composites. This work shows the fabrication of electrospun veils of PA6 polyamides for their integration into the composite by varying the number of veils in order to analyze their influence on the flexural strength of the composites.