The effect of needleless electrospun nanofibrous interleaves on mechanical properties of carbon fabrics/epoxy laminates

The effect of polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous interlaminar layers on the impact properties of unidirectional and woven carbon fabric (CF)-reinforced epoxy (EP) matrix composites was investigated. The nanofibers were produced directly on the surface of carbon fabrics by a needleless electrospinning method, and composites were then prepared by vacuum-assisted impregnation. Interlaminar shear stress tests, three-point bending, Charpy-impact and instrumented falling weight tests were carried out. The fracture surfaces were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Due to the nano-sized reinforcements, the interlaminar shear strength of the woven and unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites was enhanced by 7 and 11%, respectively. In the case of the falling weight impact tests carried out on woven reinforced composites, the nanofibers increased the absorbed energy to maximum force by 64% compared to that measured for the neat composite. The Charpy impact tests indicated that the nanofiber interleaves also led to a significant increase in the initiation and total break energies. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the presence of nanofibers can effectively increase the impact properties of composites without compromising their in-plane properties because the thickness of the composites was not altered by the presence of interleaves. The improvement of the impact properties can be explained by the good load distribution behavior of the nanofibers.