A Synergetic Coupling between Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes for Hybrid Carbon Fiber Composites

摘要

Two different carbon based nanostructures, multiwall carbon nanotubes and multilayered graphene, were incorporated to carbon epoxy laminated. X-ray diffractometry indicates an average particle size of 22 nm for the multi-layer graphene (MLG) nanostructures. TEM observations revealed a thickness of 10 graphene layers, and a hybrid nanostructure where MWNT interpenetrated the MLG nanostructure. This hybrid nanostructure seems to be linked by Van der Walls bonds. This could be the reason for large crack density generated during short-beam bending tests. These nanostructures could also be the cause of improving the overall mechanical properties, in special the tensile and interlaminar shear strength, which are directly related to the internal stress distribution and failure modes. A peak increase close to 19 % was notice into the tensile test while the interlaminar shear strength was improved by 8.7%, both for single nanostructure, MLG and MWNT respectively.