Improvement in mechanical, electrical, and shape memory properties of the polystyrene‐based carbon fiber‐reinforced polymer composites containing carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon fiber‐reinforced polymers based on polystyrene matrix containing elastomer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were produced by compression molding. The effects of carbon fabric (CF) concentration and silane treatment on the morphology, mechanical, electrical, and shape memory properties of the multilayer composites were investigated. The SEM analyses showed that fibers of the silane‐treated CFs were more homogeneously covered with the polymer layers than the untreated CFs. The tensile strength and modulus of the composites increased by 521% and 125%, respectively, with an increasing number of CF plies from one to five. Upon silane treatment, the tensile strength of the multilayer composite improved by 26%, and the tensile modulus decreased by 18.4%. Electrical conductivities of the composites were in the semiconductor region due to the presence of both CNTs and CFs. 100% shape recovery less than a minute recovery time was obtained for all the composites with electrically triggered bending test.

Influence of nanocomposite preparation techniques on the multifunctional properties of carbon fabric‐reinforced polystyrene‐based composites with carbon nanotubes

“…This enhanced interaction resulted in higher tensile strength of the multilayer composites reinforced with MSPM-A-CNTs in both methods than the tensile strengths of the PS-E-CF and PS-E-CNT-CF samples. Comparing the PS-E-MSPM-A-CNT-CF sample with the PS-3-CFs sample prepared using a mold and containing 30% carbon fabric in our previous study [30] , an increase of 13.5% in the sample prepared with the masterbatch dilution and an increase of 3.4% in the sample prepared with direct melt blending were obtained in the tensile strength values of the present work. The tensile moduli of the multilayer composites are given in Figure 7.…”

“…The prepared solution was mixed for 15 min, and hydrolysis was completed, and then CNTs were added and mixed at room temperature for another 10 min. The methanol-water solution was evaporated, keeping the mixture at 80 C, and finally, CNTs were dried in an oven at 110 C for 24 h. [30] 2.3 | Polymerization of styrene and masterbatch production of PS-CNT nanocomposites with in-situ polymerization method Bulk polymerization technique was used to obtain synthesized PS (sPS), and masterbatches of synthesized PS in the presence of as-received carbon nanotubes (sPS-CNT) and MSPM modified CNTs (sPS-MSPM-A-CNT). 200 ml of styrene was gradually added into 0.005 mol/L AIBN.…”

“…[5] The tensile modulus of the PS-E-MSPM-A-CNT-CF sample produced with method 1 was 82.8%, and the same sample produced with method 2 was 36.5% higher than the PS-3-CFs sample of our previous work. [30] The elongation at break results of multilayer composites are given in Figure 8. Presence of CF in the composite materials made composites difficult to elongate due to the limited elongation of CFs, and therefore restriction in the mobility of the composite structure resulted in low elongation at break values of the composites.…”

“…When preparing multilayer composites without using a mold, and therefore providing even distribution of the applied pressure without creating gaps in the structure, shape recovery of the multilayer composites in the present study was approximately 30 s faster than the recovery time results of our previous study upon electrical actuation. [30] 4 | CONCLUSIONS PS-based and elastomer containing multilayer polymer composites reinforced with as-received and a silane coupling agent modified CNTs, and one layer of CF were prepared using compression molding technique. Polymer nanocomposites were fabricated with two different methods, masterbatch dilution, and direct melt mixing.…”

“…There has been only a few examples in the literature producing the polymer layers of the CFRPs consisting of polystyrene (PS), an elastomer, and surface treated CNTs. [ 30 ] Several aspects of the present study such as the rigid structures of PS, CNTs and CFs, soft characteristics of the elastomer, nanocomposite production with masterbatch dilution technique and the silane coupling agent modification applied to CNTs for their better dispersion are expected to improve the performance of the CFRPs.…”