Improving glass‐fiber epoxy composites via interlayer toughening with polyacrylonitrile/multiwalled carbon nanotubes electrospun fibers

Abstract

The development of innovative engineered epoxy composites aiming to manufacture cost-efficient materials with reduced weight and enhanced physical properties remains as a current industrial challenge. In this work we report an original procedure for manufacturing glass-fiber epoxy reinforced nanocomposites (GFECs) by employing electrospun fiber-mats as a reinforcing phase. These fibers have been produced from polyacrylonitrile and multiwalled carbon nanotubes solutions. Optimal protocols are designed by combining Taguchi method with the morphological, structural and mechanical properties obtained by scanning electron microscopy, profilometry and tensile tests. It is demonstrated that GFECs fabricated using GF800 glass fiber show an improvement/enhancement of the mechanical properties with a fracture strain up to 500 MPa (around 20% higher than the nonreinforced epoxy composite counterpart). It is also shown that GFECs fabricated using GF3M glass fiber exhibited a reduction of the roughness up to 56%, which corresponds with a roughness improvement from N8 to N7 following the guidelines provided by the ISO 1302. These results suggest that this type of nanocomposites would be suitable to be used in the aeronautics and automotive industries.

Fabrication, Physical–Chemical and Biological Characterization of Retinol-Loaded Poly(vinyl Alcohol) Electrospun Fiber Mats for Wound Healing Applications

“…Typically, 10 mL of the aqueous mixtures were introduced into a 24 mL syringe adapted to the electrospinning machine. A detailed description of the electrospinning set-up employed is described previously [ 29 , 30 , 32 , 54 ]. In the present work, the parameters of the experimental set-up were chosen to obtain a stable Taylor cone.…”

Simultaneously enhancing tribological and mechanical properties of epoxy composites using basalt fiber/reduced graphene oxide/paraffin wax

“…In spite of the addition of nanoparticles, including silica, TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , 11,12 and two‐dimensional materials, 13 graphene, for instance, can effectively improve the mechanical properties of EP, one‐dimensional materials, such as carbon nanotube and various fibers, undoubtedly, are a better choice 14–16 . It has been reported that diverse fibers, including basalt fiber, glass fiber, carbon fiber, and flax fiber, show obvious enhancements in the mechanical properties of EP due to their great strength, low density, creep resistance, good corrosion resistivity, and so on 6,17–19 . Therefore, great attention has already been focused on utilizing versatile fibers in developing EP composites for commercial applications.…”

“…[14][15][16] It has been reported that diverse fibers, including basalt fiber, glass fiber, carbon fiber, and flax fiber, show obvious enhancements in the mechanical properties of EP due to their great strength, low density, creep resistance, good corrosion resistivity, and so on. 6,[17][18][19] Therefore, great attention has already been focused on utilizing versatile fibers in developing EP composites for commercial applications. Basalt fibers are bio-based fibers obtained from basalt rocks and have been widely used in many engineering fields.…”