Effects of electrophoretically deposited graphene oxide coatings on interfacial properties of carbon fiber composite

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) was utilized to improve the interfacial performance of carbon fiber (CF) and epoxy resin. In this work, a simple and an effective way, without complex chemical reactions and long processing time, is proposed to prepare GO/CF hybrid fiber via electrophoretic deposition (EPD). In this method, ultrasonically assisted EPD is employed to deposit GO on CF when oxidized carbon fibers are continuously immersed into GO aqueous dispersion. Surface functional group, surface roughness, and surface morphologies of carbon fibers were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Surface free energy of the fiber was characterized by dynamic contact angle analysis. Results show that uniform GO coating with rough morphology can be formed on carbon fibers. Moreover, surface wettability of carbon fibers to epoxy resin is significantly improved by enhanced surface free energy due to the deposition of GO. Meanwhile, the introduction of GO in the carbon fiber/epoxy resin composites results in a 56.1 % enhancement in the interfacial shear strength which confirms the remarkable improvement in the interfacial adhesion strength of the composites. The interfacial fracture mechanism was also analyzed.

Nitric Acid-Treated Carbon Fibers with Enhanced Hydrophilicity for Candida tropicalis Immobilization in Xylitol Fermentation

“…When comparing cell immobilization with raw (Figure 1d) and treated CF (Figure 1e,f), more cells were immobilized on the treated CF surfaces. This phenomenon was consistent with previous reports that adhesion is the main mechanism by which cells are immobilized on a carrier [15,16,23]. Yet, despite the similar surface morphology of CF-N h3 and CF-N h6 ,more cells adhered to CF-N h3 than CF-N h6 carrier, after the batches’ fermentation immobilized with C. tropicalis (Figure 1e,f), which suggests that the capacity of cell immobilization could be improved after the treatment by nitric acid and the amount of treated time has an optimum value.…”

Electrophoretic deposition of graphene-related materials: A review of the fundamentals

“…One strategy against electrode dissolution is the use of inert yet conductive carbonbased electrodes [130][131][132]. The charge neutralisation mechanism has also been reported to govern the deposit formation for GRM sheets decorated with other charged species, similar to the case of GO, including PIHA (polymeric isocyanate crosslinked with hydroxy functional acrylic adhesive) [127], hyaluronic acid [133], methyl violet dye [112], aluminon [134], safranin [113] and Ni ions [96].…”

Recent Developments in Graphene Oxide/Epoxy Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites

“…A series of works (Deng et al, 2015(Deng et al, , 2016Yao et al, 2018) were completed which used electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to modify the carbon fiber surface with GO and CNT sizing; composite samples were made with epoxy and mechanically tested which achieved improvements in IFSS. Compared to the unsized carbon fiber epoxy with IFSS 48 MPa the addition of GO and CNT increased IFSS by 63% to 79 MPa and 89% to 91 Mpa, respectively (Yao et al, 2018).…”