Mechanical properties and failure mechanism of spreading carbon fiber reinforced different lateral dimension of graphene oxide modified epoxy composites

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) with excellent mechanical properties were synergistically designed by spreading carbon fiber (CF) tows and strengthening epoxy matrices with different lateral dimension of graphene oxide (GO). It was found that the mechanical properties of CFRPs were intimately related to the arrangement of CF and the distribution of GO nanosheets. The distribution uniformity and alignment collimation of CF monofilaments were gradually improved with the increasing width of CF tows and achieved the optimum arrangement at the width of 24 mm. The mechanical properties of CFRPs were enhanced with the increasing the width of CF tows and further improved after incorporating different lateral dimension of GO. Thereinto, GO(3)(-5 mu m) modified epoxy composites showed superior mechanical properties and improved significantly with the increasing width of CF. Comparing to the original CFRPs, the GO(3-)(5 mu)(m)-CF24mm composites displayed 81.2 %, 33.7 % and 39.1 % improvements in transverse bundles fiber test, interlaminar shearing strength and compressive strength. This was attributed that the filtered effect of CF assembly on GO(3-)(5 mu)(m) was alleviated by the tow-spreading procedure, which was the premise of GO(3-)(5 mu m) to form transverse laps between CFs that could effectively increase the resistance of CFRPs to external loads.

Automated summary

The mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites can be improved by incorporating different sizes of graphene oxide. The arrangement of carbon fibers and the distribution of graphene oxide nanosheets play a crucial role in determining the performance of the composites.