Mechanical characterization of Basalt/epoxy composite laminates containing graphene nanopellets

This paper presently investigates the influence of graphene nano-pellets (GnPs) inclusion on mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact resistance) of basalt/epoxy composite laminates. Variation of mechanical properties was explained by different GnPs loading by weight ratios (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt %) between epoxy and filler, controlling with full basalt/epoxy laminates (unfilled). Failure characteristics of the prepared samples were also presented and compared along with GnPs filler loadings. Results indicated from this study that incorporation of GnPs fillers at 0.1 wt % significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of basalt/epoxy composites due to high bonding strength at the interphase between GnPs-epoxy-fiber interactions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.