Modification of Carbon Fibre/Epoxy Composites by Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Based Electrospun Nanofibres

Abstract

In this study, the effects of modifying interlaminar region of unidirectional carbon fibre/epoxy composites by the incorporation of electrospun polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibres were investigated. PVA nanofibres were directly deposited onto the carbon fabrics by electrospinning method to improve mechanical performance of those composites. The features of the electrospun nanofibres were characterized by microscopy techniques. The unidirectional carbon fibre/epoxy composite laminates with/without PVA nanofibre interlayers were manufactured by vacuum-infusion technique in a [0] 4 configuration. Tensile, three-point bending, compression, Charpy-impact and Mode-I fracture toughness tests (Double Cantilever Beam (DCB)) were carried out in accordance with ASTM standards to evaluate mechanical performance of the composites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations were made on the specimens to evaluate microstructural features. It was observed that the carbon fabrics were successfully coated with a thin layer of PVA nanofibres by electrospinning technique. The results showed that PVA nanofibres improve the mechanical properties of unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite laminates when subjected to in-plane loading. On the other hand, PVA nanofibres slightly reduced the mode-I fracture toughness values although they led to more stable crack propagation.

Interdiffusing core-shell nanofiber interleaved composites for excellent Mode I and Mode II delamination resistance

“…Many nanofibre materials have already been tested for their toughening capability, e.g. polyamides ( [2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]), polyacrylonitrile ( [14]), polycaprolactone (PCL) ( [2,5,7,12]), polyvinylalcohol ( [15]) and polyvinyl butyral ( [12]). A recent review by Palazzetti and Zucchelli gives an excellent overview of the work performed in this research area [1].…”

Effect of Different Types of Electrospun Polyamide 6 Nanofibres on the Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fibre/Epoxy Composites

“…Recently, the use of electrospun thermoplastic nanofibres veils has emerged as a promising technique to toughen laminated composites without deteriorating the in-plane mechanical properties and without significantly increasing the laminate thickness and weight [17,18,19,20,21,22]. Electrospun nanofibres can be easily deposited on carbon [18,22,23,24,25,26,27] and glass fibre fabrics [16,28] or can be produced as standalone structures [16,17,18,19,28,29,30,31,32], which are called veils. Both ways of nanofibre incorporation have no negative effect on the impregnation of the epoxy resin in the fabric reinforcement.…”

Improvement of the Impact Properties of Composite Laminates by Means of Nano-Modification of the Matrix—A Review

“…There are some other types of nanofibers, such as epoxy 609 [44], Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) [45], Styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) [46], Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [47], Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) [48], that were reported only in one paper each. Liu et al [44] utilized co-axial epoxy 609 and SiC nanofibers for increasing impact strength of composite laminates.…”

“…In this way, the absorbed energy during impact (Izod impact test) was increased by 8%. The toughening effect of PVA on composite laminates was studied by Beylergil et al [47]. Although this nanofibrous mat had a significant effect on compressive strength, its effect during Charpy impact test was not so good and could enhance impact strength by about 11% as compared to those for the unmodified specimens.…”